


Remember Me

by TheCarolCollector



Category: Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics), Marvel (Comics), Spider-Woman (Comic)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Drama & Romance, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-09-28 07:21:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 60,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20422115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarolCollector/pseuds/TheCarolCollector
Summary: Captain Marvel is back on temporary Earth-bound duty after her stint with Alpha Flight and recent revelation about her mother, and true Kree origin, back home in Maine. As Winter settles in, she consigns herself to assisting with a routine milk run until she's called back to New York by her closest friend Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman, with unsettling news about her son Gerry's condition. Together, they investigate what's wrong, only to uncover an additional surprise that, as they look deeper into its cause, would change their relationship forever.





	1. Just One More Mark on the Wall

“What do you mean, you can’t be sure?”

The wind whipped heavily passed her enclosed helmet as she pulled up short, clenched fists at her sides. The air currents pulled her in different directions and she had to to focus to remain in control of her position. Carol held her hand instinctively to the right side of her face to adjust a flight helmet that hasn’t been there for some time, attempting to adjust a microphone that didn’t exist. Beneath her, the clouds coiled and folded over each other like a field of albino cotton candy bleached by the exposed light of the sun cresting the horizon.

There was a period of pregnant static as the message instantly relayed back down through an orbiting Stark satellite feed to the civilian cell carrier network. On the other end, a distinctly tired, annoyed, and very posh British accent snapped back, “It means I have no idea what I’m dealing with from one day to the next, and this is just one more mark on the wall, hot shot.”

“Hold on, Jess.”

She paused momentarily, peering down at the landscape below. A mountain range adorned with trees and snow-capped peaks poked out of the sheet of billowing white enough for her to get her bearings. 

_Right over the Rockies, perfect. _

Carol spotted a decently-sized outcropping to land on. She gauged her distance, adjusted her descent speed, and skillfully landed in a patch of matted snow and dirt inside a batch of scraggly trees and rocks. She then reactivated her communications channel after her helmet melted down the neckline of her suit, speaking directly into the receiver woven inside the trim of her collar.

“Okay, explain this to me again, Gerry has a fever? Did you take his temperature with a thermometer?”

The exasperated sigh at the other end of the line was all the response Carol needed, but Jess clapped back in a staccato matter-of-fact-tone of disdain, “No, I felt his forehead and winged it. Yes of _course_ I used a thermometer, and it’s more than just a fever. I wouldn’t call you in the field if it was just a fever.”

“I was just running an errand for Brand, Alpha Flight left some personal effects back in Vancouver for some of the crew and I was sparing them a shuttle launch,” Carol replied as she sat on a large rock, staring down at the sunrise breaking the line of earth and sky. She lifted an arm up to shield her eyes from the light as she admired the vista below, “so it’s more than just a fever, got it. Deep breaths, talk me through it. What’s going on?”

There was a pause and Carol knew that this must have been serious, “He’s more than just a little warm. The thermometer wouldn’t give me back a number and he’s just_ so_ warm...and…”

There was some additional hesitation Carol didn’t expect, “...what, Jess?”

After another moment she finally replied, albeit with a bit of strange reticence to her voice, “...the room is getting a bit warm too.”

Carol shot up to her feet, “What? What do you mean the _room_ is getting warm?”

“It’s warming up like it sometimes does...when you’re in it.”

_That can’t be good._

“I’m on my way.”

The helmet immediately conjured forth from her suit and wrapped her face, the process almost not completing in time before she was several miles into the lower atmosphere, a living meteor streaking across the pre-dawn sky towards New York.

\--

“Thanks Tony,” Jessica said, staring down at a small holographic representation of Stark standing next to a desk. He was in some kind of elaborate one-piece radiation suit with the Stark logo emblazoned across the back and chest, "it's clear I was interrupting...uh...something?"  
  
Stark waived away the apology while removing different pieces of the suit, starting with the gloves that detached like a space suit, “Don’t mention it, and don’t feel guilty calling me at ‘work,’ this is important. You’re family, and so is he,” he replied, gesturing off camera around the same time Gerry could be heard giggling and cackling alongside a strange wet _thwacking_ sound, “as soon as Sparklefists gets in, I want to see all three of you down here, pronto.”  
  
"We will, and again, thank you anyway."

She hung up, taking a moment to rest her head against the door frame between the kitchen to the other part of the apartment. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the corner of the living room to examine a digital dial mounted to the wall and fiddled with the controls for a bit before lightly banging the side of the wall with her fist in frustration.

“Okay, well according to the thermostat, it’s July in Christmas,” Jessica muttered as she paced around the floor from the wall to where Gerry was sitting on a block of ice in heavily modified highchair comprised of a car-seat and two different types of seatbelts, giggling as he sunk a little bit lower in the makeshift frozen throne. Even as she watched it, the semi-translucent block slowly oozed droplets of water into a large inflatable kiddie pool in the middle of the floor.

She smirked, “Well I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself kiddo, but hopefully your favorite aunt can help us out-”

The room began to shudder and shake somewhat, like an earthquake, causing Gerry to spontaneous erupt into additional fits of claps and squeals, “CeeCee!”

“Yes, CeeCee is coming I think, something this dramatic is definitely her calling card,” Jessica said with gritted teeth as she adeptly jumped from wall to wall around the room securing various items that danced upon the precipice of falling from their respective perches, “I really should have found a more diplomatic way of getting her here in a hurry.”

As soon as she said that, the shuddering stopped, followed by a brief momentary lapse in motion and sound, as if the entire shaking of the room, if not building, was a momentarily delusion produced by the several humidity and heat in the room.

Then there was a knock at the door.

“Oh, decided to play it civil suddenly? Sure you don’t want to me to open a window for you, Spider-Man?” Jessica shouted sarcastically as she hastily crawled around one of the walls to open the door from the ceiling. A veritable gust of refreshing climate controlled hallway blasted her in the face.

At the opposite end of the door, Carol was there with just a t-shirt and the bottom-half of her suit, wincing as an overwhelming opposing sensation of humidity and heat hit her squarely, aggressively and offensively across her entire front, “What can I say, I like to mix things up - what the _hell_ is going on here?”

Jessica, hair matted and moist and disheveled, stepped back and bowed with an arm extended towards the enthroned Gerry, who cackled devilishly, brandishing a nearly-consumed popsicle and reaching out towards Carol with a twinkle in his eye, “CeeCee!”

“Hi buddy! One second, need to talk to Momma here,” Carol said with a less-than convincing cavalier smile at Gerry, before slowly turning back to Jessica, maintaining the smile as it became more forced and she quietly pantomimed words through them, “Jessica, why is my godson sitting on a giant ice cube?”

“Well-”

Carol raised a finger, “No, no. Sorry. _How_ did you get a giant ice cube inside your apartment?”

“Jones and Luke brought it over," Jessica replied matter-of-factly as Carol strode farther in to examine Gerry, “I told them I could take care of it myself, but they insisted. It was the only thing I could think of after speaking with Stark earlier in the day."

Carol lifted a slightly not-as-wet-as-he-should-have-been toddler off the ice and bounced him in her arms, “So let me get this straight, I was the _third_ person you called,” she said with a slightly accusatory glare.

Through a slightly wounded and reticent expression Jessica sort of semi-mumbled the words, “well, technically you’d be the _fourth _with Luke and JJ as a set, and also I've already called Stark again to ask if we could come over for some tests.”

Carol stared daggers as she put Gerry back down gently into his chair.

“Hey, you were in _Vancouver_, I panicked and called in some local reinforcements alright? No one you wouldn’t approve of,” Jessica said while crossing her arms, “Besides, I wasn’t moving him until _you_ got here.”

Their eyes met for a moment and Carol could clearly tell that Jessica was sincere and also very rattled. That was all that was needed for her to let the matter drop. Both women walked further into the room and stared down at Gerry as he slapped happily at the ice as it pooled puddles around him. Carol broke the silence as she approached Gerry, smiled and pinched his cheeks. He fussed a bit but for the most part enjoyed the added attention, sputtering out "SeeSee!" and "Maa!" in alternating intervals as extending his arms and grasping in the direction of both of them.

Turning her head back slightly while still bent over in front of Gerry, Carol shrugged and feigned a slightly silver-lining-like air to help bolster the mood of the room, “He looks...very healthy.”

Jessica threw her hands in the air, “That’s just it, he _is_ healthy, as far as I can tell. No coughing. No sneezing. No puking. No...anything. Just this fever that became, well, what you see here.”

“So when did it start?”

Gesturing at a bedroom and where a crib-bed hybrid could be seen resting in the corner of a sky-blue wall, Jessica shrugged and began walking over there. Carol followed, taking a second to gesture back with a balled fist and thumb behind her, “He going to be okay?”

“For a minute, when he mutters to himself like that he’s in his own world for a while, plus I have him latched into there pretty good with a modified car seat.”

Carol gingerly stepped over a few LEGOs in the hallway as they went, and bent over to pick up a heavily scuffed toy S.H.I.E.L.D quinjet, “Last I heard I thought he could jailbreak out of things like that without too much trouble."

Jessica glanced back her as she pushed the door to his room open all the way, “Not since yesterday, when I found him in bed, and the bed was starting to smoke.”

Carol walked inside. The room was exactly as she last saw it for the most part. The newest addition to the sky-blue walls were numerous hand-painted clouds, and among them was a rendition of Carol flying among them, waving down at the viewer as if they were casually joining her at approximately 20,000 feet.

“That’s new,” Carol said.

“It was going to be a surprise for you, I spent some time painting it last week,” Jessica said, absent-mindedly brushing a lock of hair behind her ear while deftly changing the subject back to the matter at hand, “but I think you may want to see this.”

She lifted a blanket and exposed what looked like, as far as Carol’s imagination could conjure up, was a Gerry-shaped and sized iron sat too long on the mattress leaving a slightly browned imprint in the sheet fabric.

“It started here, when I came to check in on him yesterday morning.”

Carol raised an eyebrow, “Wow, it held up well, must be a high thread-count.”

“Danvers!”

The other woman raised her right hand up in capitulation, “Sorry, you know how I am with jokes. They’re bad and they only come out at night and when I’m scared,” she said, standing back up and looking sincerely at Jessica, “I’m scared too, lady.”

“I just...I wasn’t prepared for something like this happening, and I just started calling friends, and with you so far off, I-”

Carol slowly rubbed Jessica’s arms and then held her in a firm embrace, wrapping both of her arms around her neck. Jess returned the embrace and they stood there for just a moment.

“Alright,” Carol muttered, breaking the hug and walking assertively back into the living room, “Time to get that bread.”

Jessica nodded, wiping away a tear as quickly as she could and composing herself before following.

Carol lifted Gerry up and began bouncing him up and down as he laughed, “Strange, though. He doesn’t feel too warm to me.”

“Said the walking fusion reactor with blond hair.”

“Fair,” Carol said without paying Jessica much attention, staring at Gerry in her arms, “I suppose it is a little muggy in here.”

“A little muggy? _A __little muggy_?” Jessica retorted, taking out her smartphone and connecting it to her in-home thermostat app, shoving the climate reading results it in Carol’s face.

The ice chair finally collapsed in on itself and splashed into the pool, sending waves of water everywhere, soaking the carpet in every direction for a few inches around its circumference.

Carol looked at it for a moment, then looked at Gerry as he moon-pied at her. “Young master Gerald, I do believe a visit to Stark Tower is in order.”

Jessica sighed.

\---

The security system was already prepped for their arrival, though Gerry was the only one that required any kind of special scrutiny. The security guard just waved them all through while munching on a sandwich.

“I recall it being a bit harder to get in here usually,” Carol said to Jessica as Gerry bounced around in a custom-made Babybjörn bedazzled with gold bars and Hala star on her chest.

“Consider it the Stark version of the TSA PreCheck, except the only ones eligible today are a beautiful spider, her cute kid, and a space pirat--_Holy Smokes is that a Babybjörn_? Is that Captain Marvel I see, with a _child_ inside a….wow.”

He looked passed them both, ”Hey Joe, send me the security tapes for today okay?”

Carol glared at Stark and he spun around and gestured up the stairs to the elevators in the lobby, “I mean after you ladies, time is of the essence I know.”

Both of them sat in Stark’s office that held what would have been distracting and breathtaking view of Manhattan under different circumstances. Stark excused himself briefly to prepare some scanning equipment, leaving the three to sit awkwardly in the brutalist/minimalist office space-come-bachelor pad.

“So,” Carol said.

“So,” Jessica said.

Gerry muttered some gibberish. The room felt a bit warmer.

“You painted me.”

“Like I said, it was going to be a surprise.”

“Well, color me surprised, I suppose.”

Jessica turned to her sheepishly, “Look, Gerry looks up to you, okay? You’re ‘CeeCee’! He points up at it before bed and when he wakes up in the morning.”

There was a pause. Jessica bit her lip before clearly deciding to continue on.

“And I do too. You were in space for a while there, hero of worlds. And the world kept turning while you were out. I had to watch Gerry. There was still hero stuff to do down here, and I couldn’t keep myself from still trying to help. To make a difference in my way, on my terms.”

Jessica waited a moment for Carol to respond, but she didn’t. She just kept looking forward and feeling the same guilt of leaving creeping up into her stomach and latching on to her intestines.

_Hello, old friend_, she thought to herself, addressing that sudden sensation of being a burden on everyone that cares about her. _Been a while_.

Jessica continued, gesturing out the window of the office towards the open sky.

“Then you come back. I know...you always come back. But having you up on the wall smiling down at us, it made me feel like you’re always there watching him…”

“...like he’s always safe…”

“Jess, you don’t have to explai-”

“...like I was _safe_,” Jess finished, staring at the ceiling, unable to meet her gaze.

“I _hate _it when you’re not_ here_.”

They both knew how unfair that statement was, but there it sat, floating out in the vast metaphorical air between the both of them. It was just a few words, but it encapsulated a multitude of feelings and sensations that stretched across a few decades of arguments, splits, reconciliations and reunions. It was a miniature leviathan of emotional intent, and it's shadow cast a veritable pall over everything.  
  
They sat there like that, staring thoughtfully at Gerry as he played with a bunch of holograms of miniature versions of the Avengers that Stark activated before leaving them. He was chasing Wasp around the room as Captain America and Hulk kept to his heels. Carol realized she was smiling without even meaning to. Glancing over, she saw Jessica doing the same.  
  
"He was right, you know," Jessica whispered quietly.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Stark. He said we were family when I thanked him for helping us, and I realized how important a word like that is when life gets...unpredictable," she said with a fond nostalgic glance towards a holographic recreation of Vision as he appeared decades ago flew past her face, waving at them both as he changed direction and chased after a continually giggling Gerry, "but _this_ is different, _you_ are different, _we_ are different..."  
  
Jessica put her hand on the coffee table between the two of them, palm up, "this, is different."

Rather than immediately respond, Carol put her hand over the coffee table and laid it into Jessica's, running her fingers across her open palm and then grasping her hand. Their fingers entwined so strongly that the skin went taut and white at the joints. That warmth in the room crept up further into their general countenance, particularly where their hands met. Carol could feel it, and with that came the realization that maybe what she was feeling wasn’t entirely because of Gerry’s newfound radiant influence. Finally, she spoke up.  
  
"I'm not going anywhere."  
  
They stayed like that without saying another word.   
  
Unfortunately, their short reverie was broken by the sound of a mechanical door quickly whirring open and Stark’s face jutting through from the adjacent lab. Carol and Jessica’s hands quickly parted and they stood up at the sound to face him.

Stark smiled.

“The Doctor will see you now.”  
  
\---

“Put him on the table over there,” Stark said, and just before either of them could object to how high the table was the table descended down to toddler level with a slight downward gesture of Tony’s hand. More than that, a tiny set of stairs emerged from the floor. Before either of them could do anything, Gerry scrambled up and onto the table, muttering and grunting versions of the word “Up!” as he clambered to the flat metal summit.

“Smart kid.”

Carol ambled up next to the table and roughed Gerry’s hair, “Thanks, he gets it from me.”

Tony’s expression went a little slack, the smile a bit less certain. He took a few steps back and activated a computer station by reaching back and slapping some random switch.

“Yeah. About that.”

The boards and screens came a bit more to life behind him. The Stark Industries logo scrolled across the screen before transitioning into a myriad of various status screens and laboratory readouts. He glanced upward slightly as if speaking to an unknown deity. 

“Moira, bring up the schematics from the samples that were provided from Gerry’s last wellness check from our extension services at Sinai.”

Suddenly, the aforementioned imaginary deity replied. A matter-of-fact and distinctly feminine Scottish accent replied back in delicate but concise Speyside brogue, “Here you go, Tony. Loading up the medical records now. Please confirm release of private medical records with bio-metric affirmation."

Carol raised an eyebrow, “Moira? Just...Moira? What, no snappy acronym?”

Tony pressed his thumb down against a small square module that ran a beam across the surface of his digit as he waved away the question with his free hand, “Just Moira. Long story. Needed an extra pair of hands and an opportunity to create a new operational systems A.I. cropped up that had the potential to not die, try to kill me, or some combination of the two. It can autonomously manage multiple Stark-held assets across Manhattan without breaking a sweat. Moira here is a proof of concept I got in return for lending some of my developmental resources.”

“What kind of opportunity?” Carol replied, raising an eyebrow while folding her arms.

“Let’s just say I’m a sucker for a hard luck story. It’s just a research collaboration.”

“With who?” Jessica asked this time.

Tony smiled with a slightly coy yet guarded expression, “Easy Detective Drew, are you off the clock? I thought we were here for shorty.”

Moira managed to conveniently interrupt the exchange, “Record release confirmed. We can proceed now, Tony.”  
  
His natural exuberance flared back to life as he snapped his fingers several times while saying, “Fire it up, Em.”

Before either Carol or Jessica could blink, he clapped his hands together and gestured mid-air and two spiraling DNA structures floated in front of them. They looked like holograms of the atypical double helix you would see in a high school presentation. He pointed at both of them while Jessica walked back to Gerry to keep him occupied while Tony spoke.

“The formation on the left is Gerry’s structure three months ago,” Tony said, walking behind the indicated twisting series of sticks and balls, then moved on to the other, “This one is Gerry’s structure now.”

“I don’t see the difference, should we?” Jessica asked while bouncing Gerry up and down on her knee while he gibbered about the flashing light show arrayed before him.

“No, not really, but this is the macro scale, I like getting into peptides and acids and their affiliated ilk, but I also like to show off first. Part of my charm.”

Both women rolled their eyes. He got serious again and tapped a few commands into the nearby console, “Em, give me the works.”

“On it.”

Only a millisecond passed.

“Displaying now.”

Instead of double helices there now sat three independent strands of parabolic lines, with repeating GATACA symbols in various combinations running beneath him. Tony smacked his hands together rubbing them vigorously.

“Okay, this here, this God stuff,” Tony explained. “This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of creating and determining the structure and purpose of life. It’s also where fingerprints get a bit more exact in identifying hallmarks, harbingers of diseases, and familial traits.”

Both women stared at Tony, but not before Jessica stole one last look at Gerry’s short blond curls with a slightly concerned expression.

“Why are we looking at these now?” Carol asked perplexed, “Does this have something to do with Gerry’s condition?”

Tony cocked his head to the side slightly, “Well, yes and no. It _may_ deal with his condition, especially now. Up until this point, most of Gerry's...shall we say _gifts_ that have entertained and delighted his mother…”

“...easy Stark, I’m working on four hours of sleep.”

He gestured, “Case in point. Most of his superhuman manifestations can be directly tied or inferred from his mother, especially since we do not know the father…”

Jessica shifted uncomfortably and kissed Gerry’s on the top of his head before brushing absently at the part in his hair.

“...but this recent development has given me some additional comparative context on that note, especially because of what you see before you,” he finished, while taking out a thin metal pen that drew a hovering red circle around the top two series strands. “I ran an algorithmic predictive analysis and the error percentage is infinitesimal: these are the parents.”

He then circled the bottom strand, “and this is that young handsome fella over there.”

Carol raised her eyebrows in surprise, “Wait so you know who the father is?”

“I do,” Tony said, and it was clear that he was enjoying this reveal a little too much. Jessica raised her arm for a moment, “Tony, I’m not sur-”  
  
Tony was totally fired up and kept going despite her attempt to interject, “Em, move to the next panel, bring up the string displays between subject A and subject B, current timeline.”

This time the A.I. didn’t respond but simply started working on his command. Gerry’s strand and the mystery father’s strand became much larger and several matching segments were highlighted in contrasting colors. Tony gestured at both and picked up right where he left off with a laser pointer.

“_This_ right here is your garden variety human. _This_, however, is limited-edition for this neck of the woods, unless you count the occasional incursions we sometimes have to deal with. It’s Kree.”

“Wait, the Father is _Kree_?!” Carol exclaimed, looking back at Jessica who was now seemingly staring at the ceiling with strange vigor and interest. She was about to turn her head back to Tony but snapped back to look at Jessica with a furrowed brow. 

Tony shook his head, “No, Ms. Danvers. The father is _half_-Kree.”

Pulling her puzzled expression away from Jessica for a moment, Carol returned to the the display and got goosebumps. Her skin went slightly clammy.

He made a few more keystrokes and the image changed to another different strand of letters and lines. They re-arranged themselves into another contextually vague but aesthetically understandable sequence of thin bars of varying size. His typing continued as he spoke, “These are individual genetic markers. Pay attention to the series of bands on the right as they overlap some portions of Gerry’s.”

Several segments, including those flagged a Kree genetic markers, lined up perfectly. When they did, the system made the matching sequences flash on and off in lightened and dimmed alternating brightness.

“The strand on the right was from the physical I gave our good Captain before her mental wellness vacation up to Maine.”

The room got very quiet, very quick.

“Em: Activate Big Finish.”

“Yes, Tony.”

All of the TV screens suddenly went dark and then rebooted to a clip of an older daytime talk show, where emblazoned across the bottom of the screen read the phrase_, “You ARE the Father!”_ as a sullen-looking man in a white jersey t-shirt and faded jeans put his head between his legs.

Confetti exploded out from a few hidden pockets of the lab and hung limply in the air for a minute. Carol glanced back at Jessica, who gave her a blank stare back, and not in the way that normally would confer an aura of complete absolution from the issue. Carol's eyes conveyed volumes, and Jessica knew she was in for a conversation. 

“Sorry, thought that would be a bit more impressive. Short notice,” Tony said while producing a cigar from what appeared to be a very expensive and extensive collection of rolled tobacco, handing one to a dumbfounded Carol “Cubans. From before Bay of Pigs. The good stuff.”

Carol stood there with a slack jawed expression, the cigar loosely held between her thumb and forefinger. Tony slapped her on the back.

“Congrats, it’s a boy.”


	2. Sparkle Spider Stuff

****Tony put his hand on Carol's shoulder as she remained frozen in place processing the information, "Well, for what it's worth, if you need parenting advice..." He dropped his hand and walked off, "It won't be from me. Obviously. I'll text you Sue Storm's personal email. She's got that family charm thing on lock down. Thank you Moira you can go into secretarial position now.”

The voice chimed back in, “Right, see you at your desk.”  
  
While he was walking away, he clicked a button and a series of blinds half-descended down the glass facade facing the cityscape. It dimmed the atmosphere of the office a bit but kept things illuminated enough to avoid artificial lighting.  
  
“I know no one can see us this far up, but I felt it more appropriate considering the sensitivity of the topic at hand, and how we may want to go about investigating how it transpired to begin with,” he said, voice trailing off as he briskly walked back to his desk, grabbing a bottle of water and twirling off the cap before taking a healthy swig.  
  
“Plus, and I’m being honest here, I have to help you see this through to the best of my ability because I think this may retroactively win me back a lot of bet money.”  
  
Back in the lab, Carol put the cigar down for a moment, tapped her feet lightly while silently creating a cloud of brooding that was rapidly reaching the top of the chart of what Jessica commonly referred to as the “Danvers Scale of Rumination.”

Jessica eyed her nervously from a ceiling perch, cradling Gerry, who seemed to be both enthralled and enraptured by the dangling sensation. She decided that this position was just as good a place as any to face the full frontal fury of a Binary-level tirade. Instead, Carol twirled the cigar in her hand thoughtfully, pocketed it in one of her hip-mounted red satchels, and ignored her completely, directing her attention back to Tony heading back into his office suite. Jessica's eyes widened as she watched her exit.

“Hey. HEY!” Jessica quickly twirled and flopped down perfectly on both feet trailing behind Carol, leaning in behind Carol’s shoulder while whispering fervently, “Aren't you going to ask me if I knew anything?”

Carol shook her head, “Nope.”  
  
“I think I deserve a chance to explain my reaction,” Jessica fired back, “It’s not some sinister plot to somehow steal your girl-sperm at night, Carol.”  
  
Carol stopped and rested her forehead into her palm, “First off, gross, Jess.”  
  
“Says the woman who just Picard-maneuvered a perfectly respectable girl-sperm joke.”

Carol spun around, “Ok, secondly, this is _not_ an appropriate time to make Star Trek: the Next Generation references.”  
  
She gave her an innocent look, “There’s a _bad_ time for Star Trek references?”  
  
Shaking her head, Carol fought off an unsolicited grin at Jessica’s attempts at levity, but eventually just sighed and looked back at her with tired eyes, “Jess, you should have told me the _minute_ you thought _anything_ like this was happening, the very _minute_ you knew something was wrong with your pregnancy.”  
  
“I…”  
  
“You _know_ why.”  
  
Jessica looked askance at the corner of the room, and finally put Gerry down to run with the holographic Avengers again, giving him a light kiss on the back of the head before he took off.  
  
“I do.”

Carol put her hands on her hips and continued, “But that’s not why I’m angry, Jess. I buried that part of my life a long time ago,” Carol said softly as if to convey more weight to the words being said, “I’m mad because I know that my closest and dearest friend that I share all my intimate secrets and emotional vulnerabilities with would never keep a drop of information about something like this from me, or at least I _thought _so.”  
  
Jessica indignantly pointed at Carol’s chest, the accusatory finger in question aimed squarely into the heart of the Hala star, “Look I get why you think this is some kind of unfair railroading of your dignity or sense of morality, but I think you need to take a good hard look at the balance of the scales here in whatever you want to call our strange friendship of occasional mutual annihilation.”  
  
Eyes raised in shock descended into thin slits of simmering low-burning fury, “Are you seriously going to compare what happened to you at the hospit-”  
  
“Oh you mean the hospital in the _Black Hole,_ Danvers? The one in _deep freaking space_ that you neglected to mention? That hospital?"  
  
"Jess..."  
  
"Yeah! I’m _comparing, _girl, I’m comparing _hard._”

Carol looked down at her feet, clearly defeated already as the memory of that dark period flooded across her entire frame like an envelopment of pure shadow, “...that’s not fair.”

The other woman leaped up to the side of the wall to stare Carol eye to eye at a 90 degree angle, “No, you know what isn’t _fair_? What’s not fair is watching someone you trust act unilaterally like a goddamn demigod demagogue, choosing who lives and who dies. Bruce was my _friend._ The fact that his weird Gamma-radiation nonsense coupled with the irony of fate gave him back to us doesn't matter, becasue you know what I _really_ mourned, for a very long time?"  
  
She let the question go, and it remained unanswered in the awkward silence.  
  
"I mourned for the friend I once knew, because whoever came back from space was someone I didn't recognize anymore."  
  
After that last outburst Carol stepped back as if struck, flinching and raising her arms as if expecting a blow about to come. A physical assault never happened, but Jessica leaned in even harder with her wrath-filled rhetoric.  
  
“Not everyone has to _report_ to you, _Captain Marvel_, least of all me. I quit this shit to avoid living in another fucking Twilight Zone episode for another day, and somehow all I ever do when I’m _near_ you is get sucked back into another layer of insanity, waiting for the next shoe to drop.”  
  
“I thought we were past that…”  
  
“...yeah, I thought we were too.”  
  
They stood that way for a moment until they both realized that the other was glowing slightly around clenched fists, casting an eerie green and gold glow over their feet in the dimmed conditions. They both sighed with a crestfallen resignation and un-clenched their hands.  
  
“Sorry,” Jessica muttered, “I didn’t figure there would be as much yelling when the threat of this moment occurring entered my mind.”  
  
“With you, there’s always yelling, Red.”  
  
“Hey, you said you’d lay off that nickname when I switched to my leathers.”  
  
“Seems appropriate now.”  
  
Jessica raised her head up and laughed, “The boss of space has spoken!”  
  
“My god you are so pig-headed, self-centered, obtuse, and stubborn,” Carol muttered as she mock-winced and pinched her brow, falling back on her heels as if struck by the unseen weight of Jessica’s obstinate rebuttal.  
  
“Yeah well I said it once and I’ll say it again, look in a god damn mirror sometime.”  
  
After a moment Carol crept back over to a nearby bulkhead wall of the office, running one of her hands absentmindedly across a thin vein of marble and gold that accented the trim.  
  
“I know you don’t like it when I apologize, either because I do it too much, I fail to say it at the right time, or that it won’t take away all the _bad_ that entails being close to me.”  
  
Jessica looked away, biting her bottom lip as Carol continued.  
  
“You think I don't know I'm different? You think I don't see how the others see me, Avenger or civilian? I don't know how to...work, around people. Not properly. Either I become my father and I'm all fists and fury, or I just...don't do anything at all. It's another reason why I keep going away. The silence, the loneliness. It's easy to understand. I can process loneliness. That's a pain that makes _sense_."  
  
She kept staring at the wall, leaning her cheek across the cold surface of the marble while speaking to Jessica, or possibly even to herself, "All I ever seem to do is fail you, or leave you, or indirectly hurt you. And now this, and somehow it’s all my fault again,” she whispered.  
  
“How dare you, Carol Danvers.”  
  
“Excuse me?”  
  
“How dare you _always_ take credit for every bad thing that has ever happened to me. I am a grown-ass woman and I make my own choices,” Jessica replied, “and when bad things _do_ happen, I know you’d be there in a heartbeat if you could. I always knew that, even when I hated your guts.”  
  
Then she walked up behind Carol, gently moved her around, and pulled her into a fierce and meaningful hug, “You think I don’t know you wouldn’t move heaven and earth itself for me? You’re _my_ people, just like Ben or Roger…”  
  
Jessica trailed off at Roger’s name, and knew that Carol caught it too. She gave Jessica a knowing look.  
  
“I’m not letting you go until you tell me, you know I’ll win.”  
  
“I’d make it messy, though.”  
  
“Let’s not give Stark’s pretty office an excuse for a remodel.”  
  
“Heh, alright,” Jessica surrendered. “Roger's fine, he’s...he went back to his wife…”  
  
“Olivia, right?”  
  
“Yeah, to make things right. After his ‘death,’ and even when we realized how we felt…how much he wanted...how much _I _wanted...it would just be like killing him all over again for his family. I won’t be responsible for more hurt like that. Not when I felt it myself.”  
  
“Believe it or not, I know the feeling.”  
  
They broke the embrace but stayed close, each looking deep into the other’s eyes. The pleading nature of Carol’s features and demeanor, filled with a veritable wealth of self-recrimination and guilt, nearly broke Jessica in half. She just wanted to somehow scoop all of the hurt inside of that half-Kree heart and crush it, like slaying a dragon.   
  
_After all of the monsters we’ve fought together, doubt is one hell of a beast to slay. _  
  
A crestfallen look came over Jessica's face as it contorted into a series of indecisive, painful expressions, “Alright! Alright. Let's just...forget all of this. I'll tell you my story. It’s not much of a story to tell, really. I just didn’t have the guts to...well, share what happened.”  
  
Crossing her arms, Carol planted both feet squarely down and equidistant from one another, except this time it came accompanied with a sly smile.

“Well, I suppose it’s time to enlighten me.”

_Uh-oh_, Jessica thought, _I know that stance: ‘The Colonel,' I'll have to tread carefully…  
  
_Carol took the brief interlude of thought as an opportunity to very quickly wipe away a tear and lean in somewhat conspiratorially towards Jessica as if conferring a secret in mixed company.  
  
“I find that starting at the beginning often helps.”_  
  
_Jessica frowned, brows furrowed in a grimace while staring back at her._  
  
...I’d hate to kill Carol today. We had a good run.  
  
_\---  
  
Tony flopped down in his chair at the other end of the long office, “Hey, it's okay you guys do your thing, I'm just here and all, no other appointments or pressing business engagements, no big deal,” he said absentmindedly, only to see Gerry suddenly appear at his feet.

“Wow, you are a fast little bugger, aren't you?”

Gerry said nothing and simply presented him with a well-loved stuffed Spider-Man doll, as if that solitary act was the answer to a multitude of questions.

Tony took it in his hands, “Yeah, I'm a big fan of this guy too. One thing not a lot of people know about him, he's a smart fella,” Tony said after handing the toy back and lifting him into his lap, activating a bunch of Stark-branded interactive edutainment videos, “Anyone can be fast or strong kiddo, but the real magic happens up here,” Tony said tapping the side of his head.

Attracted to the sounds of the games booting up, Gerry immediately started playing a program that involved matching a series of complex shapes into compatible vacancies across an elaborate three-dimensional board without skipping a beat. As each piece successfully slid into its inverted silhouette on the board, a miniature version of Dr. Bruce Banner clapped and gave a thumbs up.

“We'll make a STEM prodigy out of you yet kid,” Tony said while hazarding a glance over his desk at the other end of the room where Carol and Jessica were having it out what could only be described as wild gesticulations and elaborate hybrid shout-whispering.

“Don't worry Ger, they'll be fine,” he basically said as a re-assurance to himself more than anything, while he watched the agitated proceedings with somewhat of a concerned look, “Dads can be complicated, trust me I know.”  
  
He pushed a button further down his desk, “Moira, download all the bio-metric data we have on both of our resident hot-heads and cancel my appointments for the next hour…”  
  
His command was interrupted by a slight flash of light and color as both women fumed and their hands glowed in varying colors of channeled energy.  
  
“...better make that the rest of the afternoon.”  
  
The AI replied back quickly with the usual chipper dulcet Scottish tones and style, “Does that include the meeting with Ms. Walters in two hours?”  
  
He put his face into his hands, “Oh, god you can’t be serious, what is the purpose of that meeting again? Can I avoid it?”  
  
“I'm afraid this was one of those non-negotiable meeting dates. It's purpose is to discuss the new Xavier charitable endowment parameters as she is the lead counsel on retainer for the arrangement as agreed upon by both parties, and I am always serious. I was programmed that way.”  
  
Tony sighed and leaned back in his chair so hard it nearly went horizontal, “I remain unconvinced on that note but since I only programmed half of you, I’ll just pretend that this strange and aberrant sense of humor came from me. Anyway, no. I’ll need to see Jennifer. Send her in when she’s here but give me a warning when she arrives. God, do I look like I want to complicate my life further?”  
  
“Based on prevailing evidence of your biographical data and mission records, I cannot verifiably answer that question as it its rhetorical nature cannot be discerned.”  
  
“...are...are you _teasing _me?”  
  
“Possibly.”  
  
“Is the real Moira this pithy?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“She didn’t seem like it. Should I be worried you have this much emotional autonomy?”  
  
“No.”

At that moment another puzzle piece was completed by Gerry, and Bruce Banner re-appeared to give a thumbs up and a smile, “Good Job!”  
  
\---  
  
“So here’s the deal,” Jessica said, reclining on her side, her body sprawled out the ceiling like a teenager on a bed speaking on the phone, her hair dangling down to the floor, “When I told you I booked an appointment I wasn’t lying.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Carol replied in a position that mirrored Jessica’s, both now facing each other clinging to the top side of the room for privacy.  
  
Jessica raised her eyebrows, “I did the deed! Planted the seed. Prepared the harvest, got the happy juic-”  
  
Carol raised her hands in capitulation, “Okay got it. Got it.”  
  
“Well that’s just it. I went through this giant questionnaire, then a medical consult, psych consult for compatibility with the program, the whole nine yards. The entire practice came highly recommended from a few folks I know who had trouble conceiving. They were clients of mine from a case I worked on with Ben. There was nothing wrong or strange about any of this.”  
  
Reaching behind her ear to collect her hair back into a manageable shape for it to dangle downwards in a similar fashion, Carol took the opportunity to reflexively scratch her head in a form of demonstrative confusion or thought, “Okay, so, aside from annoying me with TMI, why are you telling me this part?”  
  
“Part of that process involved choosing elements and traits that you preferred from a pre-ordained list of...distributors.”  
  
“Donors.”  
  
“That’s what I said.”  
  
“No, you definitely didn’t.”  
  
“Anyway, I selected my straight shooters…”  
  
“I swear to god, stop making this weird right this instant.”  
  
“...and none of them had blond hair. Not in their ancestry, not in their deep history, not in anything. Now, I know that I’m not naturally this beautiful raven-haired shock of perfection, but I wanted a black haired baby for this faux black-haired Momma, and I figured having at least predominantly black hair on that side of the…  
  
Carol looked at her sternly.  
  
“...’exchange’ increased my chances.”  
  
The comment hung out there for a minute and Carol just shrugged, “Doesn’t prove anything, but I get what you’re saying.”  
  
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not a slam dunk by any stretch, but then there’s the fact he just, well, doesn’t look much like me...and a whole lot like you” Jessica said, finding a stray jellybean in her pocket and popping it into her mouth, “and it’s also all I know, but now you can see why I was hesitant to raise the issue: I also had little to go on other than a mother’s intuition. I mean, look at him. Really.”  
  
They both looked down at Gerry playing a game on Stark’s lap. Carol turned back to her for just a second.

“I’m not sure if I’m more unsettled by the mystery unfolding before us by your sudden and tardy revelation, or the fact you just fished something clearly stale and horribly old out of your pocket it and decided, ‘this is probably food’ before immediately popping it into your face.”  
  
“Focus, babe.”  
  
Carol turned her attention back to the table.  
  
“Is that a miniature Bruce Banner?”  
  
“So help me Danvers, I will ka-zap you into next week.”  
  
“Okay yeah, I can see there’s some resemblance.”  
  
“Some? He does have my nose, but come on..."  
  
“Okay, a LOT of resemblance, but that gets you a dime on the Internet rumor mill - which is still going strong about us I might add - and not much else.”  
  
They stared as Gerry played with the game while Stark encouraged him to press on. It became clear he needed little encouragement to press forward into the other challenging tasks the game was throwing at him.  
  
“Being in space may have absolved you from noticing too much, but I’m kind of surprised you didn’t, like, ask.”  
  
Danvers shook her head, “Wasn’t my place, babe.”  
  
“So you tricked Stark into asking at that party back at my place just to see me fry him up like an egg?”  
  
Carol looked over at her and winked, “Oh snap.”  
  
“Lord you’re incorrigible. People look up to you, all prim and honest and do-goodery with your straight laces and fly suit, and underneath you’re more an instigator than me.”  
  
Carol raised her hand, index finger up, “...instigator than _I_.”  
  
“Oh, we are _so_ _not_ doing the grammar police thing right now.”  
  
Carol shrugged and popped a jelly bean into her mouth.  
  
Padding her jacket pockets, Jessica whipped her head to her jacket and then back to Carol, “Wait what the hell?”  
  
Carol winked again, “My life would be meaningless if I didn’t occasionally surprise you.”

They both laughed then, and it seemed like all the tension fled out of the room due to the sheer audacity of their indifference to the situation.  
  
_This matters more than anything_, Jessica thought, _and god I missed it.  
_  
After the joviality of the moment subsided enough for them to catch their breath, Jessica, still holding her sides a bit, finally chimed in, “As an integral part of my character was recently besmirched, I’m going to be honest.”  
  
“I expect nothing less.”  
  
“Hush. Regarding my uncanny ability to have access to a nigh-limitless supply of ‘incidental’ food items…”  
  
“You mean your squirrel-like side tendency to hoard pockets of lint-covered granola and expired jelly beans.”  
  
“I’m not going to dignify that, but yes. More to the point, I’m quite good at it, and you’d be surprised how often that comes in handy when you’re off….hero-ing.”  
  
“I’m sure,” Carol said and stood up, upside down, dusting herself off.  
  
Jessica did the same while pausing to stare at Carol, who quizzically stared back while floating back to the floor.  
  
“...what?”  
  
“I know how I do it, Spider-stuff, etcetera,” Jessica opined with a thoughtful glance at Carol’s descent as she crawled down the walls, “But how do you...ya know, stick up there with me?”  
  
“Oh,” Carol said, “I just ‘fly’ into the ceiling and keep the pressure up enough to press me to the surface.”  
  
“Huh, thought it’d be more interesting than that.”  
  
“Story of my life.”  
  
“Hardly. Ya know… I missed that.”  
  
Carol glanced at her while re-adjusting her suit a bit, “Missed what?”  
  
She pointed up, “Our literal hang out sessions, it was nice.”  
  
“It was.”  
  
They stared at each other for a moment, grinning like idiots, and got a little closer. For some reason Carol’s cheeks were burning, and all she could think about was Jessica’s hair and hard surfaces…  
  
“Jessica, I know this won’t make up for anything, but-”  
  
She raised a finger in mock-warning, “Don’t say it, Danvers.”  
  
“...I’m sorry. I know. I know you hate it. I know it’s meaningless in the context of all the _wrong_ that’s happened, but there it is. I know doing is better than saying, but I’m a woman of my word, and...I have to.”  
  
She extended her hand.  
  
“Dammit. Fine.”  
  
Jessica took her hand and shook it.  
  
“I’m sorry too.”  
  
“You have _nothing_ to apologize for.”  
  
“Then I guess we’re in agreement on that note.”  
  
When in such close proximity, that extra inch of height Carol had on her made its appearance known as Jessica looked up into the same shade of blue she saw every day in Gerry’s face. The same messy blond hair too, even if Carol grew it longer now. She was about to lean in and consider something foolish, but instead blurted out something to halt the nascent yearning unfolding inside her.   
  
“I liked it better when it was short.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Your hair.”  
  
Carol laughed, and her smile was like the sun, and the familiar warmth that was being in orbit to pure energy and light given form radiated outward, enveloping them both, neither seeming to want to fully let go. Jessica took a risk and leaned into her, resting her head on Carol's chest, listening to her breath, her heartbeat, and the firm sensation of her form pressing against her face. She left her eyes open, uncertain as to what the reaction would be.   
  
“I’ll keep that in mind," Carol replied, running her hand through Jessica's hair and leaving it to rest in the curve of her back.  
  
"Is this...um...are we...?"  
  
"Shh."  
  
Jessica closed her eyes as a small smile curled at the corner of her lips.  
  
\---  
  
“I feel like I keep breaking up something interesting, but here we are.”  
  
Both women turned to see Stark holding Gerry's hand, while the latter was clutching a brand new stuffed Iron Man plushy.  
  
“If you guys are done and onto the make-up phase of the eternally entertaining Carol-n-Drew show, which I will love to hear about at the next rooftop party, I have a theory about what got us into this mess.”  
  
“Us?”  
  
“Oh haven’t you heard? I’m officially Uncle Tony now. This is a family issue and I’m adopting you both until we figure it out.”  
  
“I don’t recall agreeing to that. Carol?”  
  
The other shook her head, “Nope, can’t say that I have.”  
  
Tony threw her a USB drive and said, “Head’s up, Space Dad.”  
  
Carol caught it, staring daggers, “Don’t _ever_ call me that again.”  
  
Jessica smiled and said, "I kind of like it," putting her arm through Carol’s and cuddling up against her, while the latter initially stiffened then sighed and let the snuggle-assault continued unabated.  
  
“I’ll let you two workshop it. As for the other bit, trust me, it’s a thing. Uncle Tony is a thing now. Also, take that for a spin at home, use your Avengers PC for it.”  
  
Jessica caught it and stared down at the advanced-looking but still recognizable portable storage device emblazoned with the Stark Industries logo on one end and the Avengers logo on the other. A piece of tape with the words “Sparkle Spider Stuff” scrawled on it was also affixed to one side, covering some faded text that said “Hotspur Upset” underneath. Carol looked up at him with a raised single brow.  
  
“Yeah I used to store and watch my bootleg English Premier League matches on that. Never missed a single Arsenal game against the Spurs. They were just too early to watch, okay?”  
  
Silence greeted the explanation. He waved them away.  
  
“It was a phase! Anyway, I have all the medical scans of all three of you on there. It may come in handy.”  
  
Jessica raised a hand.  
  
“Um, yes?”  
  
“What the hell is an Avengers PC?”  
  
“It’s what we all use at home to connect to the mainframe here,” Stark replied, “You know, everyone got issued one last yea-ooooh that’s right.”  
  
Jessica smiled sweetly and cocked her head to the side, “But not me, I’m assuming because the whole quitting thing?”  
  
Carol sighed, “‘Always an Avenger’ is spotty as ever as an employed axiom I see.”  
  
“Um, yeah, you must have been dropped off the list. Sorry.”  
  
Jessica waved it away, “No need, there’s a reason I left and I knew they would be more surprises like this in addition to some of the other perks and bennies I surrendered when I left originally. Grampa Steve was nice about it but he was fast with cutting the fundamentals.”  
  
“Well you’re more than welcome to use my stuff, but I think the hard part now is figuring out where to go next.”  
  
Carol shook her head, “It’s okay, we can use my place.”  
  
Jessica looked over at Carol, “You have a place?”  
  
Carol returned the look with a cool poker-worthy blank slate, “I have a place.”  
  
“In space, right?”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
Tony interjected while Jessica gave Carol the stink eye that clearly conveyed the message _this isn’t over, _“I do have one piece of unpopular advice and news for you.”  
  
“What is that?”  
  
Gerry was still holding Stark’s hand and looked up at him with doe-eyes as he spoke, “Mini-Space Spider hybrid here is still heating up, though never to dangerous levels, and that can be controlled with these hypo-dermal compressors. He won't feel a thing, just press against his shoulder and squeeze the button.”  
  
As he demonstrated the mechanism, he continued, “this will keep him at roughly regular kid temperature if not a low fever, but you can’t keep dosing him forever. This concoction is laborious to produce, and I’m not sure I want to keep suppressing his system artificially, especially if this is the new normal.”  
  
“What are you suggesting?” both women nearly asked in unison.  
  
“Well, at the brass tacks level this is a Kree thing, I think,” Stark replied, “and you may end up having to either ‘acquire’ some resources from them to nail down what’s going on, beat it out of someone, steal it, or straight up ask them for help...should time become a factor.”  
_  
That sounds ominous_, Carol thought.  
  
“How much time _do_ we have, Tony?”  
  
He shrugged noncommittally, “Plenty. For now. I don’t want to give you an arbitrary deadline but I’ll call you if things start looking a bit shallow on the production side here. I’ll keep synthesizing this material, and I’ll give you a case you can take with you that will keep him going for a while. I would recommend, if you’re inclined, leaving him with us while you undertake some of this investigation work.”  
  
Jessica shook her head, “uh uh, no way am I leaving him here.”  
  
Touching her shoulder lightly, Carol leaned in a bit, “Hey lady, these are good folks.”  
  
“I know they’re good, they’re angels,” Jessica replied, “but I left for a reason, where there are angels there are demons, and I don’t want Gerry near any of this insanity.”  
  
“Where else do you suggest we keep him safe while we work?”  
  
“My place, of course, Ben can-”  
  
Carol interrupted, “Hon, your place has a semi-broken wading pool inside it, and Ben or Roger are _not_ equipped to watch him as he slowly turns into a Carol-adjacent supernova, okay? We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and the best people to protect him are people who deal with the unknown every day, even if that isn’t your jam anymore.”  
  
Tony kept chiming in, “Guys, do you mind if we tak-”  
  
But Jessica replied undeterred and uninterrupted, “Honestly, I don’t think that’s your call to make, this is _my_ son we’re talking about.”  
  
Tony’s tone was rapidly becoming more frantic, “Guys! _Really_ want to chime in here just to war-”  
  
Carol’s eyes lit up like embers, “Well from where I’m standing, we have a bit of a disagreement on that note!”  
  
“Do we now? DO tell!”  
  
One last ditch effort to butt in from Stark got him pushed away relatively quickly, muttering a comment about needing to have powered armor deployment available from inside this specific room installed.  
  
“Unless I’ve been hallucinating for the last two hours, I’m pretty confident I get a say in this now because he’s _my son too!_ I’m his _father!_ Or second _mother_. Or something! But I get a say! You can’t just shut me out on this.”  
  
“WATCH ME.”  
  
A new voice off to the side, near the entrance, suddenly emerged in one of the brief pauses in the exchange.  
  
“He can stay with me?”  
  
Everyone turned to look at once as Jennifer Walters, green and gorgeous in a black power-suit with briefcase to boot stood in the entry-way smiling at them both, two other lawyer-looking subordinates bringing up the rear.  
  
Moira’s voice chimed in brightly, “Ms. Walter’s team is here, Tony.”  
  
Stark muttered a weak reply, “Yeah...Yeah. Thanks Moira.”

Jennifer smiled from ear to ear, "I guess I owe Stark his ten bucks back."   
  
Stark fist pumped. Carol’s arms fell limply to her sides. Jessica leaned in closer to Carol as they both stared at the grinning green giantess, "Just putting it out there I’d be okay with her.”  
  
Carol looked down at Jessica with suddenly wry expression.  
  
“Ever been to rural Maine?”


	3. A Good Thing

“If you stir that any more aggressively, I think it’ll start evaporating out of the glass,” Jennifer said with a lifted eyebrow that accompanied a degree of lighthearted admonishment, “that kind of behavior is more my department, anyway.”  
  
“Hmm?” Jessica said, broken out of her reverie.  
  
“You. Your drink. I’m pretty sure it’s a misdemeanor to abuse a Long Island on Long Island.”  
  
Jessica’s eyes widened as she stared down at the swirling beige and brown maelstrom before her in the glass, and then sighed, “Sorry, I’ve been like that a bit since, well, everything I guess.”  
  
“Yes, I noticed you tend to drift off into wistful insular self-reflection and wanton beverage destruction whenever your gaze trays outside toward our resident Captain.”  
  
She was about to lodge a protest at the observation, but the colorful rebuttal intended was interrupted by the fast-moving silhouette of Carol walking back and forth in an erratic but regular pattern just behind the blinds of the living room, which ran the full length of the wall, terminating at a front door made of solid oak.  
  
The living room itself, which was more of a glorified side room to a larger front lobby adorned with a horse-shoe staircase that lead to the second floor, was bathed in light. Various modernist paintings adorning the walls. Jessica leaned against a faux-Romanesque pillar and took a long sip from her not-entirely-virgin mock Long Island iced tea.  
  
The open-ended nature of the front facade of the house gave a relatively unobstructed view of blond woman’s frantic and focused pacing, shifting a small phone in her grip from one ear to the other as she gestured along with whatever she was saying to the unfortunate party at the other end.  
  
Jessica shook her head and shifted her view inwards as a distraction and to hopefully nix that _particular_ line of discussion for the time being.  
  
“That reminds me, Jen, thank you again for helping us all out like this, I just…” Jessica trailed off before finding a way to finish the thought. “I just didn’t want him near…”  
  
Jennifer lifted one arm with a raised index finger almost immediately, “Let me stop you right there. You don’t have to explain, I get it, I’ve been at this just as long as the two of you, remember. Granted, my path towards all that high-minded responsibility and respectability was, shall we say, far more interesting.”  
  
“It definitely got you better digs. The Hamptons? Really?”  
  
Rising and pushing a button to let, somehow, even more natural sunlight into the space from a series of automatic skylights above, Jennifer shrugged and poured herself a glass, gesturing towards Jessica’s, which depending on the time-honored philosophical perspective of the viewer, was rapidly nearing either half-empty or half-full.  
  
“Top you off?”  
  
“Not right now.”  
  
“Suit yourself,” Jennifer said, “and yes, I figured my little pad out here would be a bit better suited to taking care of our resident mini-Carol; And yes, before you say anything I see it too, I think that’s why we all had a betting pool to begin with.”  
  
Jessica’s head shot up from nursing her drink to gave her the hardest glare should muster at the moment.  
  
“About that-”  
  
A smile erupted on Jennifer’s features and she interjected before Jessica could utter another word, “We have a blood pact never to divulge the details, nor who started the idea, and as a registered counsellor in the great state of New York - and a Notary, mind you, _very_ serious stuff - I am bound by privilege and dare I say stirling reputation as a solicitor to remain silent for the benefit of my clients..”  
  
“We? Who is _we_?”  
  
“I can’t divulge that either.”  
  
Jessica pressed a button for her special glasses to contract and deftly lifted and inserted them into her hair in order to close her eyes in frustration and pinch the bridge of her nose for dramatic effect.  
  
“So let me get this straight. The Avengers - the world’s greatest heroes - took time out of their day to place a collective bet about whether or not Carol got me pregnant. More to the point, they took this bet so seriously they hired you to witness and notarize the entire affair.”  
  
“Your words, not mine. Your private detective wizardry is powerless against my unassailable courtroom-chiseled mind.”  
  
Jessica opened one eye mischievously.  
  
“More like cheese-grizzled mind.”  
  
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, Ham-Sandwich-Woman, for the sake of the child.”  
  
“Jen I’ve seen you put an entire cheesesteak truck out of commission after a big battle.”  
  
Jennifer sat up from her reclined position in a wicker chair that somehow resembled both functional sitting device and eclectic minimalist art exhibit, “Holy shit, you’re going to pull a Hulk-moment card on _me?_”  
  
“I still remember that, clear as day, it was called the ‘PhillyBuster,’ the guy was nearly in tears until you put the entire thing on your corporate card.”  
  
“Jess…”  
  
Jessica puffed her chest out and clambered back and forth momentarily, blowing out her cheeks like she was chewing on something and shouting in between bites, “HULK CLAIM ON TAXES!”  
  
“Yeah well, you may be able to make Bruce make you a sandwich, but this girl isn’t susceptible to your feminine wiles,” Jennifer said before taking a look outside. “Well, then again, maybe I should be worried that works, all things considered…”  
  
“Oh, that’s just a low blow,” Jessica replied.  
  
Jennifer shrugged and took another sip with a healthy dose of good-natured side-eye, “When in the mud…”  
  
They both stood there for a hot second, relishing and basking in the bright sordid after-glow of the sass-laden battlefield, before they both burst out laughing. It was a good kind of laugh too. The kind where some of the sad sort of bleeds out because there’s simply too much fond memory and joy in the heart to give credence or room to sorrow and doubt.  
  
In a way, they both knew it was something necessary, and needed, though perhaps either lacked the ability or desire to articulate why. _When you have history_, Jessica thought, _sometimes the answer is already there before you ask the question._ It was that unspoken truth that ruled the moment, as some of the tension of the last few days poured out of her and into a monogrammed white Berber rug.  
  
“I missed this.”  
  
“Me too.”  
  
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”  
  
“We each have our own paths to tread. We’re big girls now. It happens.”  
  
Their brains hung their proverbial hats on that sentiment for a while as they twirled their drinks a bit more. As if suddenly remembering where they left off, Jessica finally broke the thoughtful quiet.  
  
“Okay so what the hell? Are you serious about that group bet? You literally can’t tell me anything about it? Jeez, was it signed in blood?”  
  
Jennifer just stared at her with the same mocking grin and took a sip of her drink. Jessica’s eyes narrowed with the most artdent and clear demonstration of what it looks like when the straight-man in a conversation finally surrendering his naivety to newfound skepticism.  
  
“...Bullshit. You _were_ bullshitting me! You and Tony both!”  
  
“Possibly, but that’s kind of what I do for a living,” she replied, gesturing towards the rear of the open-concept first floor that terminated with a back patio, which held, among many things, a player piano, more areas to sit and entertain, and a bona-fide miniature hedge maze overlooking the bay in the greenspace beyond.  
  
It was breathtaking. Despite not wanting to feel so, and definitely never possessing the intent nor the inclination to admit it, Jessica was envious. Well, envious _after a fashion_. The whole package of this place was definitely too fancy, and far too fussy, for her. The sights, sounds and smells, occasionally even the bad ones, of New York proper called out to her from this alien whitewashed finery.  
  
Yet, the food was good and the air was clean. _There’s definitely worse places to keep Gerry_, she ruminated to herself, especially with a giant begrudgingly gorgeous green monster to guard him.  
  
Jennifer’s teasing-by-way-of-bragging continued unabated.  
  
“Besides, it buys the view that dropped your jaw a moment ago, and I shit you not: my over-the-fence neighbor is the Barefoot Contessa. You can’t buy that kind of a story.”  
  
Jessica rolled her eyes, “By your very own admission, just now, you can.”  
  
The other woman mock-gasped and pointed, “You should be a lawyer!”  
  
Jessica groaned and gave her the finger back as a reply.  
  
“Aww, don’t be like that, you know you’re my favorite of the two Jessicas,” Jennifer said with a mock sad face while walking back to Gerry as he played away in a nearby playpen. “Well, in certain specific character traits.”  
  
“That comment could be taken in two vastly different ways.”  
  
“Again, hello, world’s greatest attorney here,” Jennifer said as she waved at Gerry and shined him one of her classic smiles that could stop traffic. He waved back in an unbalanced way children his age do, wobbling while giggling and screaming, “Gee!”  
  
Jennifer turned back around quizzically while kneeling down and playing with him a bit.  
  
“He keeps saying that.”  
  
Jennifer looked up from her drink, “Saying what?”  
  
She gestured back at Gerry, “Gee? He keeps saying it whenever he’s looking at me. He did it a few times while you were getting things out of the car, too.”  
  
Jessica tried to cover a smirk.  
  
“Oh no, Ms. Drew, that is so not how this arrangement works. You tell me right this instant what’s so funny or so help me I’ll put you both on the street!”  
  
“No you won’t.”  
  
“Be that as it may, I demand satisfaction!”  
  
Jessica dropped her hand from her mouth, revealing the most strenuously suppressed face the other had ever scene before, ““He’s, um.... saying ‘green’”  
  
Jennifer’s face went from the beaming smile to a semi-bemused and less than amused expression, “Cute.”  
  
“I like to think so,” Jessica said as she grinned and waved at Gerry, who looked at her briefly but then looked elsewhere. Both women followed his gaze, and it became clear that his eyes seemed to penetrate the barrier of fabric and glass into the realm of the world outside. He pointed with both arms fully extended outward, hands making grasping motions, as if his call and summons could be heard across the threshold.  
  
“CeeCee!”  
  
Jennifer ran her fingers across his scalp gingerly and tickled him a bit. After the giggling subsided, she stole another glance behind her to ask, “CeeCee? Who’s CeeCee?”  
  
Jessica glanced down at her feet and sighed wistfully as the corners of her mouth curved upward slightly, “Who do you think? It’s what he calls Carol whenever he sees or hears her. It’s pretty much his favorite word.”  
  
“After Gee, I hope.”  
  
“Absolutely,” Jessica replied. “No one else can hold a candle to Gee.”  
  
“Good,” Jennifer said, “I have a reputation to uphold about maintaining the interest of my gentlemen callers.”  
  
She ruffled Gerry’s toe-colored head one last time and gestured outside, taking the welcome opportunity changing the subject from one where the realm of the color of her skin was reduced to a child’s single-worded exuberance, “Kid’s got a point. Space daddy’s been out there for twenty minutes already. Who’s she calling, anyway? It's not like she has a long list of…”  
  
The sudden realization hit her like a freight train, and she instantly regretted asking.  
  
“...Oh.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jessica replied as she also glanced outside and took another sip of her own drink, “Oh.”  
  
Jennifer winced. “Rhodes?”  
  
“....yuuuup,” Jessica said, adding a bit of sharp treble and emphatic flair to the p on the end.  
  
A pause. Jennifer tilted her head to the side in a clear demonstration of delicately navigating a minefield of potentially loaded questions.  
  
“Do you know how well he’s taking it? Does he even know yet?”  
  
“I don’t know anything about anything, and as to the second, well, he does _now_.”  
  
Jennifer walked back over to her and put her arms around her shoulders, giving her a firm shake and a somewhat unconvincing glance of reassurance, “Are you, um, okay?”  
  
“Yes. No. Maybe?”  
  
“Jessica…”  
  
She waved it away, “I’m fine.”  
  
“When one of us says ‘I’m fine’ in that kind of tone, it usually means we’re dying or bleeding internally or something.”  
  
Jessica stared back with a wry expression, “What do you want me to say? Oh, my friend got me pregnant, and now my kid, who I secretly somehow thought just _maybe_ was hers, is possibly sick or something _because_ of it,” she said as she flailed her arms at her sides helplessly in resignation, “You know, a normal Tuesday.”  
  
Then she gestured out the window, “what is it going on outside is definitely ‘the conversation,’ and I can’t help but feel somehow it’s my fault even though I totally know it isn’t, and it’s really really messing me up, alright?”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jessica repeated, “Oh.”  
  
Jennifer snuck a glance ad the expression on Jessica’s face as she watched Carol outside. In between pangs of angst and guilt there was this flash of something deeper every single time Carol’s route took her into view again. A little bit of the light returned to Jessica’s eyes, and a measure of color to her cheeks.  
  
“Oh honey, this is more than just the pregnancy thing isn’t it?”  
  
With that comment, the floor went out of the room for Jessica a bit. Blood rushed to her face, her legs seemed to feel like they ceased to exist even though they propped her up, and her brain reverted back to instinct. She backed away crawled up the entryway wall halfway and clung there.  
  
“I don't know what you're talking about.”  
  
"You're not fooling me, we've known each other too long to do this kind of dance. Talk to me Drew. Really. It's okay."  
  
"That's just it, I'm not sure what's okay anymore."  
  
Jennifer walked over and leaned against the wall next to Jessica, saying, "None of the fancy papers on my office wall say I’m qualified to help in this particular way, but I’m your friend. I’m her friend too. I’m definitely here to listen.”  
  
Jessica just rocked back and forth a bit without responding immediately, alternating between staring outside, staring at Gerry, and staring back at Jennifer, who continued, "Fine. I'll keep talking, alright? I'll tell you about my fears, how's that? I'll lay myself out to you first."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Alright then. Here goes. Every time I put on that insane one-piece and go on one of our adventures, you think I don’t constantly feel my otherness to everyone else? You think I don’t feel the stares, the thoughts of people wondering ‘_what if she loses it one day like Bruce_?’”  
  
Jessica spoke very softly, but definitively in defense of her friend, “No one thinks that. No one thinks you'd be capable of something like that.”  
  
Jennifer shrugged, looking away for a minute as a flicker of doubt and pain crossed her features.  
  
“Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s still in my head, and I know we all have our demons like that. I’m here for you to listen to yours, and perhaps a bit of what the better angels inside all of us has to share as well, as the say. Because there’s nothing wrong with whatever you’re feeling. Absolutely nothing at all.”  
  
Jessica sighed and angled her head in contemplation in such an odd and alien way that the full manifestation of her mantle made itself known as she remained fixed at a 90 degree angle to the side of the wall.  
  
“Thanks for letting me, um, cling up here or a minute or two. It helps me think. My brain works better when I see things differently.”  
  
“_Mi casa es tu casa_,” Jessica said with a smile. “Happy to help, SpiderWoman, and by the way, I’m pretty sure you’ve always seen things a bit differently than the rest of us. That’s a compliment, by the way.”  
  
“Thanks,” Jessica replied with a queasy grin, “I just don't know how to articulate some of this. I still don’t. But we both know Carol, right?”  
  
They were both talking in an almost whisper-like level now, perhaps out of subconscious respect for what appeared to be the solemnity of the discussion's topic.  
  
“I’d like to think so, it’s been a few decades.”  
  
“Part of me thinks..." she started to say before she got a guarded look to her face that was portions of uncertainty and fear, "I swear to god Jen, if you say anything...”  
  
Jennifer stepped forward and took both of her hands in her own, staring at her, eye-to-eye, “From this moment forward, Jessica Drew, consider me on retainer, and this is a private conversation between you and the family attorney. Now come on, let me help you back to your feet.”  
  
Jessica’s eyes started to fill up a bit before she wiped at them, “Alright.”  
  
She rubbed at her nose a bit as she hopped back down to the ground, Jennifer offering her a hand that they both knew wasn’t really necessary, but the gesture was appreciated and taken advantage of nevertheless.  
  
“The part of me that thought that maybe Gerry was hers?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“That same part...that part of me _wanted_ him to be hers, too.”  
  
“Oh, _Jess_…” Jennifer enveloped her in a big hug, Jessica’s face resting over her shoulder as she continued.  
  
“I _wanted_ it to be her, and I _wanted_ her to want him to be hers too. We’ve been through so much together, seen so much together. She’s saved me so many times in so many ways, and vice versa...”  
  
“Yeah, but you started it.”  
  
Jessica barked out a laugh as she still rested her chin over Jennifer’s shoulder, “Yeah, I suppose I did.”  
  
“You don’t have to explain this, you know. Sometimes things just are. Or they become what they are over time. We’re not statues, we’re living beings that change and grow.”  
  
“I know. I do. It’s not that I feel I have to justify anything, it’s just I never encountered a feeling that felt so right before. Part of me feels like...when you put that last piece into a puzzle. It all comes together. It makes sense.”  
  
She paused for a moment, the weight of something spiritually heavy slowly unshackling itself from somewhere deep inside. A moment of truth, perhaps, decided at last. She nodded to something unspoken, and looked up at Jennifer.  
  
“_Carol_ makes sense. _We_ make sense.”  
  
Jessica took a moment to collect herself before making the words she was thinking real not only to herself, but in blind confession to another soul.  
  
“I think I love her. Like, actually love her.”  
  
Jennifer just tightened the hug and gave that comment all the auspicious time it’s weight and import deserved before finally offering her own words.  
  
“If there’s one thing I know about Captain Marvel, is that she’s not one to run away from something. Especially if she has skin in the game, and right now, she _literally_ has skin in the game.”  
  
Jessica laughed again. It felt good to hear that.  
  
“Trust me on this, JD. This isn’t the first time she can’t punch her way out of something big, complicated and important, and it won’t be the last. She knows she has to be careful with this, and will get it done. Carol doesn’t back down from doing the right thing, and from what matters to her.”  
  
She gently stroked Jessica’s back, “and believe me girl, I can’t think of anyone or anything more important to Carol Danvers than Jessica Drew.”  
  
They stood like that, together, until they both could hear the sound of muffled expletives emanating from outside. Jennifer broke the hug ever so slowly to raise the blinds of the window so they could see outside unimpeded.  
  
The view that unfolded before them was of a very flustered Carol Danvers, blond hair tied up into one of the most hastily erected pony-tails either one of them had ever seen, errant strands billowing in different directions as she swirled back and forth at the termination of one linear path only to begin a new one. A small non-foldable cellular phone was clutched against her face so tightly it almost looked to them like Carol was trying to become one with the technology.  
  
Jennifer side-bumped into her, “So, another drink?”  
  
Jessica quickly thrust her glass out with a shaking hand, “God, _please_.”  
  
They both poured new, slightly stronger, glasses of libation, taking a sip almost in unison as they watched one of the most powerful women in the galaxy forcefully and indelicately carve a worry spot into a random patch of lawn on one of the nicest private properties of East Hampton.  
  
“So, she still uses that old-as-hell Nokia huh?”  
  
“I keep a spare in my pocket just for her. It’s a whole thing.”  
  
At that point, Carol stopped dead in her tracks and whirled around, seeing them both stare at her. She turned beat red, and then took off into the sky slightly and out of immediate eye shot.  
  
“I bet.”  
  
  
\---  
  
  
“Hey, hey, I just need you to hear me out,” James Rhodey pleaded on the other end of the line, “I can barely hear you because it distorts when you yell, what the hell kind of phone are you on, anyway?”  
  
“Not the thing to focus on right now, Rhodes.”  
  
“Okay okay, but again, I need you to take everything I’ve said into context, alright?”  
  
“What kind of additional clarity do you need, exactly, because all I did was confide with you on something fundamentally important, if not slightly disturbing about somehow accidentally impregnating my best friend in a yet-to-be-determined cause,” Carol said as she stomped aggressively, “and then you went quiet on me.”  
  
“I did _not_ go quiet on you, Danvers.”  
  
“You sure as shit did, and then the conversation rapidly started taking on the appearance of some form of ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’” Carol retorted, weaving a line through the intricately designed bespoke stepping stones that formed a path towards the front door of the larger minimalist-style Walters estate, “What exactly am I mishearing?”  
  
“That’s just my point,” James replied, “You’re giving me a lot to process here, and I feel like with the responsibilities you keep stressing that you’re undertaking to figure out what's wrong, and also just in general, maybe it’s better if I stepped back for you to eval-”  
  
“That’s not your place to dictate what I need to do or think,” Carol retorted, “this is a good thing we have, a _good thing_.”  
  
“Yes, it is a good thing, and I want to keep it intact by putting it on a shelf until this situation with Gerry blows over.”  
  
Her hand cupped the phone while the other pressed firmly against her forehead as the mother of all migraines felt like it was swarming into her skull like a swarm of bees carrying a thousand miniature flashlights.  
  
“He’s a child, not a hurricane, James.”  
  
“Not what I meant, and you know it. And by the way, that’s how relationships work, Carol, so yes, I do have the right to say something about _us_,” he replied, “and from where I’m sitting, you have a lot to process right now, so hitting the pause button seems like a prudent course of action.”  
  
“So you’re quitting.”  
  
“That’s out of line.”  
  
“Is it?”  
  
“Yes, dammit. I’m still here for you, as a friend, but I just feel that with what you’re experiencing there needs to be a clearing of air so you can avoi-”  
  
He suddenly clammed up on the other end of the line. She stopped, and turned around to find Jessica and Jennifer staring at her from one of the front windows. Jennifer waved meekly while taking a sip from a fancy-shaped glass of something brown and most likely infused with one vodka or another.  
  
She could suddenly feel her face burning, grimaced and took off into the air, cradling the phone against her ear.  
  
She paused mid air, hovering in position a few dozen feet off the ground in faded jeans and a billowing heavy plaid shirt wrapped loosely around her frame to stave off the mild Winter chill, “Care to finish that sentence, Colonel?”  
  
“Carol…” his voice trailed off into a pained, audible sigh, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to-”  
  
“Avoid what, Rhodey?”  
  
“I just didn’t want your judgement to become...compromised again.”  
  
She whirled around in midair a near perfect pirouette of raw untapped fury.  
  
“EXCUSE ME?!”  
  
There was a slight pause on the line.  
  
“Carol, I care for you, and I’m glad for the time we’ve had together, and I do not necessarily want that to end, but I’m going to be blunt here because that is the kind of language we both know, the tone of voice we both use, and the kind of words we both understand in our line of work. It’s how our minds operate, okay?”  
  
“I’m listening.”  
  
She started to fly, almost instinctively, the nervousness she exhibited down on the ground manifesting now in subtle floating twirls as she glided on her back as he began, “The last time you committed to something this hard, and you didn’t know what you were dealing with or why, you made a lot of gut-checks and a lot of folks got hurt.”  
  
“This isn’t even remotely the same thing.”  
  
“I died, Carol. I effectively died. I can’t even get back into a suit anymore. I’m still putting the pieces of who I am, or who I was, back together. I don’t know if I’ll ever be who I was.”  
  
She winced as if struck.

“That’s not fair.”  
  
“No, maybe it isn’t, but you know what it is? Something you know far too much about yourself. Something you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Especially someone you care about. So tell me I’m wrong to feel this way. Tell me Carol. Am I wrong to feel this way?”  
  
Carol put the phone down at her hip, tears streaming down her face, taking a moment to breathe, and then raising it back up.  
  
“No.”  
  
“Thank you,” he said, and you could hear his voice draw down on the other end, like a taut string losing its tension, “I just want, no I need you to know, I’d do it all over again for you. I believe in you. I do. But I still feel it’s good for me to remove myself from this, and let you figure out what’s going on. I’m still here for you if you need help with anything that gets rough, or even if you need someone to talk to, I just can’t let an idea of ‘us’ complicate what is clearly an already complex situation that involves a _lot _of emotions and feelings for you.”  
  
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”  
  
“If there’s one thing I know about you when things get messy: you never stop, and you need to focus to get the job done right. If you don’t have the latter, the former becomes a problem. We do have a good thing, Carol, but you also have a good thing with someone who has known you nearly twice as long as me, and she needs you, and that kid needs you, so I’m going to help give you the focus you need, even if means taking a step back.”  
  
Carol didn’t know what to say. She just continued to glide on northward over the dull seasonal foliage and bustling villages, towns, and places of the land below. Eventually, without really thinking about it, she was suddenly overlooking the cloud-strewn sky and the placid waters of Long Island Sound.  
  
Beyond, before and below her, ships of various sizing were entering and leaving dock from the many ports of lower Connecticut. She flew lower, near the surface of the water, and took in the ambient coolness of the breeze as it kissed her face. Felt the warmth of the shimmering reflections of light as the sun’s influence refracted and reflected across its body.  
  
The smell of it brought back memories of the home she intended to return to very soon in pursuit of answers. Memories of her mother. The woman she knew before she truly knew her, and the preciously-short time frame that fate gave for her to comprehend the latter. Her father, smiling and laughing with an ice cream in each hand for her and her brother. Her father, a whiskey bottle in his hand, shouting at her for liking too many things that boys liked, and having dreams of something more than a kitchen under her command. Memories, both good and bad, flooding her senses as deeply as the salty spray of the bay.  
  
Suddenly she felt a sharp pang in her chest, like something breaking. It took her breath away.  
  
“Carol?”  
  
She shrugged it off. _Get it together_. _Pull yourself together. You’ve got people counting on you. _  
  
“I’m here. I understand. Goodbye,” she said and severed the connection with a firm and jerky thumbpress, clenched her first in frustration and tossed the phone into the water so hard it fragmented into pieces far before it hit the surface.  
  
_That was probably unnecessary_, Carol thought, and she knew on some level he was right to give her the space she needed to take care of what was needed, but it didn’t take away the frustration of the insinuation she was one step away from doing something that would hurt anyone she cared about. Again.  
  
“I am in control,” she said to herself and the open sky, which was kind enough not to argue.  
  
She opened her clenched fist and saw the remains of circuitry and phone scattered across the palm of her hand. She looked back up, and for the briefest of moments, forgot where she was.  
  
It was gone in a heartbeat.  
  
_Just stress. Shake it off. _  
  
“I’m fine.”

\---

  
A new day greeted the driveway of the Walters estate. Thankfully, fair weather similar to the preceding day also greeted them as they began to discuss their travel plans and repacked a small stash of snacks and an extra pair of clothes for the trip.  
  
Jessica packed slightly more, hastily and vehemently testifying to the fact that she couldn’t materialize her duds at-will like certain interstellar champions. Regardless, the matter was quickly dropped and left alone.  
  
“Besides,” she said as she watched Carol carry most of her bags to the car for her, “Mother’s over-pack, it’s a sign of preparedness. I like to think it’s a sign that I'm a decent textbook _madre_.”  
  
“Is that a fact?” Carol said with a slightly sarcastic air, walking to the car with a multitude of variously packed travel bags adorned over her shoulders and down her torso.  
  
“Yes, Captain Grumpy, it is.”  
  
Jennifer leaned in and jabbed Jessica lightly and playfully in the ribs, “Plus I think you’re enjoying bossing her around, _and_ the show.”  
  
They both stared as Carol’s physique made itself known through a tight white t-shirt while she hauled the gear to the car. Jessica glared at her.

“Where are you going again?” Jennifer asked while swapping away at some errant flurries as the chill bit in slightly, “and why are you leaving at the buttcrack of dawn?”  
  
“Harpswell, Maine,” Carol replied, “in beautiful Cumberland County. Population of about 5,000 on a windy day.”  
  
“Okay, and why are you going there again?”  
  
“It’s where I’m from, and I have...a place there, with some stuff that can help us understand some of the data Tony recorded on Gerry and I.”  
  
“Did you literally just tell me you got a _place _with _stuff_?”  
  
Carol looked up at her while still prepping the car.  
  
“Yep.”  
  
Jessica leaned in and touched Jennifer’s hand as she passed by with some small bags, “Leave her be. How often does Carol have to keep a secret or two, even if she’s a little obvious about it?”  
  
“Thanks for the backup, Jess,” Carol said sardonically.  
  
“Hey, Sparklebutt, I’m defending you here, keep packing,” Jessica retorted before turning back to Jennifer. “ Let her have some of her aura of mystery about this, it’s clearly something special, and we’re leaving _early_ because it’s over six hours away, give or take, and we want to get there before dark.”  
  
Jennifer sighed and shrugged. “You sure you don’t want to take my spare Beemer?” she asked, “As much as I appreciate the fire-engine red of the Starkmobile here, I can’t help but feel that you could be riding in something a bit more comfortable.”  
  
They were still loading the rest of the meager luggage for the trip into the back trunk as Jessica replied back, “No this will be fine, besides, it runs on some kind of fusion reactor that won’t run out of ‘gas’ until we’re all dust, or something really nerdy like that.”  
  
“Sounds like a Tony car.”  
  
“And the top comes off,” Carol said with a wink at Jennifer while glancing over at Jessica slyly. Jessica gave her pouty face and threw her leather jacket at her in response. Carol caught it and draped it over the passenger seat.  
  
“Okay listen, yes, I may be partial to convertibles and that predilection may have played a part in our primary mode of travel,” Jessica said. “But if it were up to me, we would be riding in style via the clean lines and plum trim of a retrofitted Indian with a sidecar.”  
  
Carol grunted, “Yeah, no thanks, I did the whole motorcycle thing. It even flew. Not my bag.”  
  
“That was Rogers’ bike right? What a freaking eyesore of a machine.”

“It was a necessary evil at the time. Emphasis on the evil.”

“Please don’t judge all motorcycles based on your time with Shitty Shitty Bang Bang. Please Carol.”  
  
“I have and I will, because I almost died on that death trap fighting Deathbird...sort of,” Carol retorted, taking a moment to think about what she said before rolling with it and nodding to herself.  
  
Jennifer butted into the conversation again, “Far be it from me to ask an untoward question…”  
  
The other two women laughed at the same time.  
  
“Yeah yeah alright, laugh it up,” Jennifer said, crossing her arms but clearly also in amused spirits at the reaction, “but remind me why you’re not flying there again.”  
  
Both Jessica and Carol looked at one another before clearly designating that Danvers would be the one to tackle the response.

“Well, first off, Jess probably isn’t too keen on me lifting her by the armpits across state lines for a healthy while.”  
  
Jessica smirked and shook her head.  
  
“Plus, a road trip is a good chance to...talk.”  
  
Jennifer put her hands up, “Ah, say no more. I suppose you both do have a bit to talk about before you get there.”  
  
“I think that’s putting it mildly,” Carol said as her eyes connected with Jessica again as they walked up to say their goodbyes. Jennifer hugged them both.  
  
“Don’t worry about Gerry, he’s in good hands, and speaking of Gerry: _think fast_,” Jennifer shouted and tossed Jessica a stuffed Iron Man doll, “I gave him his Spider-Man plushy back. For good reason. Check out the backside of Tony’s toy mini-me there.”  
  
Jessica flipped the stuffed doll around to find it’s back stitching exposed. A crushed tracking device was resting nestled inside.  
  
“I know he means well, but I have a thing about men trying to keep track of where I’m at and what I’m doing. I know he cares about Gerry and you guys like any of us, but that coy white knight crap is an old hangup of mine. Uncle Tony wants to find any of us? He can call. Also, I had the car swept for bugs too by one of my security consultants that I use for high profile case clients. It’s bug-free.”  
  
Jessica whistled at the sudden revelation of the Stark tracking device, “well that’s good to hear, but who did you use?”  
  
“Private contractor,” another feminine voice said from behind them both. They turned around and Jessica Jones was there behind them, with the closest thing that came to a genuine smile on her face, clutching a bottle of Jack with a threadbare bow on it.  
  
“I got you a little something, I guess. I’m not exactly sure what to do in this kind of situation even under normal conditions, so, well, here,” she said as she put the bottle into Carol’s hands and slapped the side of Carol’s shoulder forcefully enough to knock her slightly off-balance.  
  
“Mazel Tov. I’m not sure how you did it but hey, kudos, I mean, not saying it’s my thing, but if the evening played out right and the food and drinks were good…” her voice trailed off as she raise her arms in a _what ya gonna do? _Pose, “You got one hell of an ass, Drew, no lie.”  
  
Carol tried to mouth words not nothing much came out.  
  
“So I’m told, thanks JJ,” Jessica replied dryly.  
  
“I mean, I’m not sure how the whole ‘baby’ thing works, but hey, I went to community college.”  
  
Everyone silently agreed to terminate that line of conversation by allowing an awkward an ironically pregnant silence to immediately follow, before Jessica finally said something.  
  
“I guess you found out somehow.”  
  
“It’s what we do,” Jones replied and offered a form of conciliatory shrug. Jessica nodded back without digging further on the particulars.  
  
Jones continued, “You both were in the neighborhood - as much as Neilette Armstrong over here ever is, all things considered - so I wanted to make a point of making an appearance and offer to help out if I could. Thankfully Jenny was looking for some answers on if this glorified nerd-mobile was wired.”  
  
She slapped the hood, “Far as I can tell, you’re clean. Can’t ever be sure with that mustachioed geek, but hey, if life were certain and made sense we wouldn't be having this conversation, or even remotely be in this situation, all things being equal.”  
  
She looked off to the side awkwardly at nothing before finally saying something, “And look, I won’t pretend to know exactly what’s going on or what happened. Frankly, on the biological side I don’t _want_ to know-”  
  
“We get it!”  
  
“Okay okay! But if you, either of you or both of you need me for anything, you call, okay? You. Call. You are _not_ allowed to chase this down in the dark alone. I don’t care what it is, I don’t care where it is. I’ll steal a space shuttle if I need to, but I’m there. Don’t close me out. I want in. I want all in. We’re a team, all of us. Okay?”  
  
“Thanks Jones,” Carol said before she sort of stepped forward and awkwardly gave her a hug.  
  
“Are...are we hugging? Is this a thing now? Do you HUG now? I thought we were both not huggers. That’s what I liked best about our friendship. Minimal touching.”  
  
“I’m a dad, it’s a brave new world,” Carol replied flippantly. “Deal with it.”  
  
She broke the embrace, looked at everyone, and for one moment wondered why she ever left as long as she did. She knew the answer, of course, and would have done it again if given a second chance. No regrets. Never regrets. Just the job. Just the call.  
  
But that was then, and this is now. Now is new. Now is different. Now was a child, ostensibly her child, that needed an answer to a question that was rooted firmly in her past. She’ll get that answer with her best friend at her side, and this time, she’s not leaving anything or anyone behind.  
  
She looked at Jessica, who looked back at her thoughtfully.  
  
“I think it’s time to go home.”


	4. Multitasking

Jessica (of the Jones persuasion) and Jennifer watched the crimson-colored technological monstrocity on four wheels, as Jennifer called it, silently and deftly crawl down the elongated driveway without as much as an engine growl, and waved as she spoke through frozen teeth like a ventriloquist, “That thing is a crime against humanity.”  
  
“For the first time in a while, we agree, Gee,” Jessica said and nodded solemnly.  
  
They both turned around and headed back into the home where the sounds of Gerry playing inside his playpen were still cheerfully echoing inside its confines. Approaching the threshold of the front door, Jennifer gave her a robust and healthy amount of side-eye.  
  
“You don’t get to call me that.”  
  
Jessica scrunched her shoulders upwards and smirked, cocking her head noncommittally, “I dunno Jenny, I’m starting to warm up to it.”  
  
“Hmm.”  
  
“Hey, if we got the kid, who is taking care of that insane alien cat thing of hers?”  
  
“Chewie? Ms. Marvel is in charge of cat-sitting duties. She has a key.”  
  
“Well good luck to her.”  
  
As they entered the family room they both turned to look at Gerry playfully clap at some of the plastic distractions arrayed before him, his bright blue eyes sparkling as he latched onto one item or another.  
  
“Hey kiddo, want to go play out back with Aunt Jen and Jess for a little bit? Get a bit of fresh air?”  
  
His eyes coupled with grasping motions, a bit of hopping back and forth, and various enthusiastic noises seemed to approve of the concept.  
  
Jessica bent down a bit to smile at him, mimicking the same tone, “Help Aunt Jen and Jess work off their wicked buzz from drinking away the weirdness of that last 48 hours?”  
  
“That too. Come on, here’s some fresh coffee, you can watch him with me for a bit before you have to go.”  
  
“Sure thing. Wait. Woah,” Jessica said, holding both hands to her forehead, “I just accepted coffee. I just realized that I’ve allowed fate to somehow sucker me into another intangible situation involving weird stuff happening to kids.” She looked at Jennifer with a strange, pleading look that was only semi-serious. “At what point did my life suddenly start involving so many children? I’m losing my edge, people are trusting me with personal things.”  
  
“So?”

“So at some point I went from being the go-to for finding missing persons and cheating spouses to…”

“A close friend entrusted with the care of precious family?”  
  
“Well, yeah I guess, but when you put it that way it doesn’t sound so bad.”  
  
“Drew said the same thing. What can I say, I have a gift,” Jennifer said while rolling her eyes, and walked over to Gerry and lifted him up. She was greeted by an enthusiastic declaration of “Gee!”  
  
“See?” Jessica said, brightening up a bit when she heard the familiar moniker erupt forth from Gerry’s lips, “It just rolls off the tongue.”  
  
“Yeah yeah...you wish you were cool enough that you get your own Gerry nickname. Did you know that Carol’s is…”  
  
She trailed off as she glanced down.  
  
“Hey, wait a minute, what’s this? Oh no.”  
  
Bouncing Gerry with one arm, she bent over and picked up an old mobile phone with her free arm. Jessica's eyes became slightly more alert and she gestured at it with her chin, “Jesus is that one of those 20-year-old hockey pucks they use?”

Jennifer tossed Jessica the phone, who caught it and started messing with the settings, making a show of squinting really hard while interacting with the small two-tone screen.  
  
“Holy Moses, I haven’t seen one of these since Midtown. One of the rich kids had one.”  
  
A pause. She looked up thoughtfully, scrunching her nose.  
  
“Man I hated that bitch.”  
  
Jennifer dropped her shoulders and sighed, “Well if it’s any consolation, you still hold irrational grudges for egregious amounts of time, apparently.”  
  
Jessica snapped a finger with relish, “Still got it!”  
  
They crossed the threshold from the living spaces into the well-appointed kitchen that had an open-bay floor-to-ceiling glass entryway. Right next to the door was a place to sit adjacent to an eating area. Jennifer put Gerry down next to her and started rummaging through a satchel for clothes.  
  
“Yeah it’s Jessica’s, she must have left it here when we were talking. Shoot, how are we going to reach them for emergencies?”  
  
Gesturing at Jennifer then back at her own chest emphatically, Jessica replied with a slightly haughty and indignant air, “Uh, hello, we’re heroes, right? Well, you’re a hero. I moonlight.”  
  
“Yeah, but…  
  
“But what? What’s done is done. We can handle this, and god help us, if we have to, we can call in the big guns too.”  
  
“I suppose so, I mean, I’m pretty kickass. Right Gerry?” Jennifer asked Gerry and tapped the end of his nose.

“Gee!”  
  
“See, even the kid agrees,” Jessica said as she sat down and raised her feet on the long oak dining room table.  
  
Jennifer stopped and looked at her plainly. Gerry looked too and blinked.  
  
She slowly put both of her feet back down.  
  
Jennifer resumed bundling Gerry up in a light jacket and scarf that Jessica (of the Drew persuasion), left with her for him to wear. The temperature outside was surprisingly tolerable so she decided not to fully dress him up like a holiday ham in fabric, but did settle on a light cap.  
  
He barely squirmed through any of it, apparently still transfixed on the two women who were a study in contrasts for the small boy. Eventually he settled on just staring at Jessica with the kind of wonder afforded only to inquisitive toddlers.  
  
“Right back atcha kid. Usually I charge for that.”  
  
Gerry just smiled.  
  
They walked over to where some balls and toys and various accoutrements of outdoor distraction for appropriate age levels were scattered around. Jennifer grinned while giving him a little kiss on the forehead before zipping up his jacket, “Just how I like them, cute and quiet”  
  
“Man he really takes it all in without saying much, doesn’t he?”  
  
She turned back to Jessica with a slightly sardonic expression.  
  
“Remind you of anyone else we know?”  
  
“Now that you mention it…”  
  
Gerry took off running in the odd ungainly gait that all children still getting full use of their land legs do. Running from distraction to distraction, he embraced each wayward toy with wanton carefree abandon. He clearly enjoyed the wide open spaces as opposed to either the confines of his apartment room or the play spaces in the parks of the concrete jungle back home.  
  
“Off he goes, is he going to be okay?”  
  
“Yeah, it’s all fenced in here, and the back gate is locked to the rest of the yard. I suppose we’re just going to have to wait for Jess to call her phone from somewhere else before we’ll hear from her.”  
  
The both walked back towards the patio to watch Gerry tear around the yard. His current focal point of attention was a soccer ball decorated in several different primary colors that shifted depending on if it was moved.  
  
“You’re not going to be out here long, I take it?”  
  
“No, just some fresh air, but it felt like a good idea since it’s been so mild. I was thinking the three of us could catch a movie in the theater room downstairs.”  
  
Jessica looked over at her, “You realize how unbelievably wealthy and entitled that sounds, right?”  
  
With a fake indifferent tone, Jennifer placed one hand on her chest and lifted her chin in a mock display of superiority, “It’s me. Of course I do.”  
  
“Right, just as long as we’re on the same page. I vote Fantasia.”  
  
“Oh, a classic.”  
  
“I know, right? We gotta rot this kid’s brain properly with magic and fantasy before those two fill it with facts and responsibilities.”  
  
“I didn’t take you for the whimsical sort.”

Jessica shot her an indignant look of surprise, “I can do whimsical.”  
  
“Oh, really?”  
  
“I read Tolkien.”  
  
“Nerd.”  
  
“Says you. Anyway yeah, I’m in, especially when popcorn is involved.”  
  
Jennifer nodded and replied with a deadpan look, “I think that can be arranged, I’ll inform the kitchen.”  
  
The other stopped for a moment to stare before continuing to follow, “You’re kidding right?”  
  
“Of course I am you doof,” Jennifer said with a sharp laugh, “I’m well-to-do, not a Vanderbilt. That’s what a microwave is for.”  
  
They reached the patio, turned around, and Gerry was gone.

A momentary pause of absolute dumbfoundedness was allowed to unfold. But just a moment.  
  
“What the _fuck_?” Jessica blurted out.  
  
“Oh my god,” Jennifer said.  
  
Jessica put both hands to the sides of her face and pressed in hard, “Please god do not let this be the day that I start drinking before 10am again. Those were dark days.”  
  
“Gee!” could be heard nearby. They both looked around, absolutely confused.  
  
“Gerry?!” Jennifer shouted in a panic, and Jessica soon followed. They scrambled around the yard to the ongoing soundtrack of Gerry giggling and saying a few scatterings of childish gibberish. Jennifer ran back over from her side of the yard to Jessica.  
  
“Jones?”  
  
“You got me, man, he should be right here, he sounds like he’s right on top of u...oh _fuuuuck_."  
  
Jennifer’s head snapped over to see Jessica staring up. She tracked where her eyes were looking and there he was, floating in place about 12 feet above them, cackling to beat the band. His trajectory had him passing out of the yard within moments.  
  
Jessica pointed while backing up a bit, alternating between looking at Gerry and Jennifer, “He, uh, he couldn’t do that before right?”  
  
The other woman shook her head while still marveling at the hovering Gerry, “He did a lot of stuff last I heard, but no, the whole weightless thing is new.”  
  
Jessica backed up a few dozen feet, “Here, bend your knees and make your back a ramp.”  
  
“What are you going to do?”  
  
Jessica gave her an exasperated look, “A sudoku puzzle, what the hell do you think? I’m going to jump off you and catch him before we lose him to the Coast Guard or Air Force, whoever we end up needing depending on sideways this goes,” Jessica said while shaking her legs and her arms in preparation, “Get ready.”  
  
“Wait a second, I distinctly remember you _flying _in the past.”  
  
“Yeah well, that’s a sensitive topic for me, green bean. Plus, and I’m gonna be honest, if pressed to take off _right now_ I’d probably do just as well as he’s doing. But I can still jump like Jenner, so are you gonna bend over and get bulky or not?”  
  
“My objections to your phrasing aside, fine. You’re certainly getting me pissed off enough.”  
  
“Good, shut up. Work with that. Here I come.”  
  
Jessica ran forward and launched up onto Jennifer’s back just as she began to expand and transform, the seams in her clothes fraying with the sudden unplanned expansion. Jessica hit at just the right moment and put some polish into it, careening forward and catching Gerry like a football, and thankfully he didn’t put up much of a fuss with the sudden bear-hug. Both came back down to earth with minimal effort.

“Well, that was a thing,” Jennifer said, using both arms to keep her outfit intact, “Let’s get back inside before we discover any more surprises.”  
  
“Good idea,” Jones replied, walking Gerry by the hand. He looked up at her and gave her the sweetest smile and hugged her leg.  
  
“Yeah, that’s how Carol convinces me to do stuff too, kid,” Jessica muttered. “Come to think of it, Jessica too.”  
  
“You realize your having a conversation with a toddler.”  
  
“I didn’t ask you, Gee. Also. for the record, I’m still in for Fantasia.”  
  
“Sure.”  
  
“And some popcorn.”  
  
“I figured.”

  
  
\---

  
  
_San Francisco Bay, An Evening in March, Years Ago_

  
It was a cold night in San Francisco. She was too new to the area to determine if it was unseasonably cold or not. But that was the first thing that stood out about it as she clung to the corner of the Ferry Building clock tower, watching a steady flow of traffic travel down the bleak stretch of Embaradero outbound from Oakland. It was damp _and_ it was cold. Not an auspicious start for a semi-cloudy evening of scouting out her new home.  
  
_Though in hindsight all bets are off when you’re tearing through the air at mid-altitude above an open body of water_, Jessica thought, adjusting her suit while glancing around at where to head to next. _But the only way I’m going to get a feel for this city is by getting out there_.  
  
She glanced down at the concrete eyesore below her, cars streaming down the lane. She contemplated her options while taking in the shadowy details of the forlorn and abandoned historical buildings beneath the highway, suffering in quiet dignity.  
  
Thus far, she had been gliding out over the open water in zig-zag patterns while moving from a perch on North Beach, Russian Hill, and even a quick endurance glide out to Alcatraz and back when she caught a sudden gust of wind that carried her here. The subtle glow of the numerous lights of the Bay Bridge slightly illuminated her, and she glanced upward back the way she came before coming to a decision on where to patrol next.  
  
_Might as well go full tourist_, she thought, and through a series of deft-defying leaps, bounds, whirls and glides, found herself tearing quickly back north and westward across the Marina District at breakneck speed down Chestnut Street, passing above homes, shops and restaurants. A few people gestured upward in acknowledge of the woman-shaped blur passing overhead, but for the most part her passing was quiet and quick enough to go unnoticed.  
  
Finally, she landed on the rotunda dome at the Palace of Fine Arts, admiring the waterscape and beautiful greco-roman inspired ambience before taking a running jump back into the air, soaring across the entirety of the Presidio, finding a wide assortment of perches, perspectives and launching points for future explorative endeavors. She stopped again and found an advantageous position to take in the entirety of the city southward before her - the metropolis her oyster to discover and, hopefully, protect.  
  
She ran her hands through her hair to adjust it after the monetary exertion upwards in elevation, and turned around to see the true jewel in the crown.  
  
Before her was the grand old lady of the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the southern shoals making a soft din below as the water’s smashed and crested against rock and land. The air had a strong electric feel to it, like a dollop of ozone was permeating the atmosphere. Perhaps a storm was coming, she wasn’t sure, but she could feel the energy dance across her fingertips almost in autonomous and sympathetic response to her power.  
  
She smiled for no one but herself, and it felt good.  
  
_I like this place._  
  
Launching off again from her perch, she decided to buzz alongside the bridge and glide amidst its wide beams and gleaming lights, a healthy flow of traffic passing along its length for even this late hour prior to dawn. As she was doing so, she noticed a strange blur of movement on the right side of the bridge. She squinted and pivoted back around to get a better look, rebounding off of a structural element and twisting fully back towards the direction of the mysterious curiosity.  
  
As she got closer, she noticed it was the figure of a blond-haired woman in free fall from the side of the bridge, dropping without without a scream or sound of any protest 250 feet straight down towards the rolling black water of the Golden Gate.  
  
“Oh god, no,” Jessica says with breathless horror.  
  
She reacts instantly, spreading her arms wide to shoot upwards as much as she physically could muster, then collapsing them immediately to her sides, creating an absolutely stupendous descent comprised of speed she almost never before tested with her suit, or at least attempted this close to the surface. Any surface.  
  
To impact at this velocity would mean instant death, but she was undeterred. The wind whistles in her ears. The turbulence of her violent act of speed claws at every angle of her form, looking for even an iota of resistance in order to throw her off course. It’s painful. The lower half of her face feels like it’s freezing solid, the corner of her cheeks slightly peaking as the force of the sudden descent whips against her features. But she presses on.  
_  
Come on. Come ON.  
  
_She pushes harder. Faster. Further.  
  
_More.  
  
_She angles her body while focusing her head upwards, eyes fixed upon the falling woman. At the very last second she re-opens her arms and let the wind catch her webbing in her sides at the optimal moment. It almost broke her arms, but it brings her closer to the stranger, who is now a tangle of errant limbs wrapped in a tattered, flimsy brown coat, just one moment away from careening into the turbulent waves.

She never reaches it, because Spider-Woman is there to catch her.  
  
Jessica collides with the woman, and, with tremendous strain, contorts herself so that the body between her legs is secure. She then spreads her arms as wide as they could go, the appendages already screaming in agony, to catch even the smallest gasp of air current and wind that Mother Nature deemed herself fit to bestow.  
  
She tried to steer her newfound bespoke flesh kite of two uncomfortably conjoined bodies back to shore with some success, and milked the glide for all it was worth. She brought the woman up against her briefly to check her breathing and condition, and noticed she was completely unconscious, and the impact of the interception before the water should have been insufficient to render her this way.  
  
_She was unconscious the entire time_, Jessica thought while focusing on maintaing as much altitude as possible, _This is no suicide attempt, someone tried to kill her!  
  
_A pause as she leaned in one last time before shifting positions again.  
  
_She smells nice, too_.  
  
Suddenly the wind gave up a healthy portion of its generosity, and they began to fall back towards the water, well-shy of the intended shoreline destination.  
  
_The wind’s shifting_, Jessica thought in a panic, _I’m losing my lift!_  
  
She struggled to maintain some modicum of velocity even if that meant surrendering the battle against staying aloft. Angling her body the best way she could while still keeping the woman straddled between her legs, Jessica managed to navigate them within swimming distance of shore just as both of them smashed into the waterline and sank temporarily beneath the surface. Jessica did everything she could to bear the full brunt of the impact in order to protect her unexpected ward.

Holding onto to the dead-weight of the unknown woman nearly pulled them both down as her muscles protested when exposed to the frigid temperatures of the water. Yet she persisted, pulling the woman along with her with every ounce of energy and will she possessed.  
  
_If I don’t get her ashore -- quickly -- she’ll freeze!  
  
_It took every ounce of will she had, but time and perseverance found them on solid ground, both soaked to the bone, but on terra firma. She staggered up, every fiber of her being screaming at her in absolute agony, but she knew that if she stopped, the woman she rescued would succumb to exposure.  
  
After a short ordeal, they made it towards the nearest public space on dry land, and she rested the blond-haired woman on a park bench, and then checked her breathing: irregular, but there. Finally she checked her pulse: irregular, but there.  
  
“On the bright side, at least you’re consistent.”  
  
She looked around and spotted a pay phone, running over and throwing the doors to the booth open. She rang directory assistance to make a call to a very specific precinct station.  
  
_Note to self, _she thought while waiting for the requested call to connect, _next outfit remember to have pockets for change_.  
  
Finally, she got what she wanted and the disinterested voice of the front desk officer sprang to life on the other end of the line.  
  
“SFPD Mission Station.”  
  
“Lieutenant Morrel, please,” Jessica said into the phone while eyeballing the woman slumped on the bench across the street, half illuminated by a street lamp.

“May I ask what this is in regards to?”

“CI call. Priority intel.”  
  
“Please hold.”  
  
There was a pause, a clicking sound as the line was routed to its destination, and another voice answered, “This is Morrel.”  
  
“Bree, it’s Jessica,” she said hurriedly as she looked around to get a quick idea of her bearings, taking in a stubby mound of stone about a hundred feet away. “I’m south of the Golden Gate, had to hit the water and swim back to shore. I think I’m back at the Marina side of things, next to some kind of miniature lighthouse or something, do you know where that is?”  
  
“I think I know where you are, yeah. What’s going on?”  
  
“I need a ride for myself and a Jane Doe; It’s a medical emergency, and my gut is saying to keep this one on the down low.”  
  
“How bad is it?” Bree asked. Jessica could tell from the tone of her voice that she was pulling in a huge favor by keeping this a secret and slightly outside her jurisdiction.  
  
“I got a jumper who I think was actually pushed. Nothing about her adds up. There’s something more to it.”  
  
“I’ll be right there.”  
  
The line went dead instantly and she knew help was on the way. Jessica rushed back across the small lane and back to her mystery rescue, who was now slightly slumped over further than the way she was left.  
  
_Oh no. Oh no Oh no Oh NO.  
  
_She laid the woman flat and checked the pulse and breathing. Neither.  
  
_Shit._  
  
She immediately started CPR. Chest compressions. Mouth-to-mouth breathing. Maintaining a rhythm. Repeating. Nothing.  
  
“God dammit I just saved your ass, you do _not_ get to give up on me. Not today, not on my watch.”  
  
She pounded her fist into the light pole and left a dent in it before sitting on the bench, tears of blind anger and despair forming at the corners of her vision. In emotional resonance to her fury her fingers began to tingle again with latent energy. She raised both hands to her face and a sudden epiphany struck her.

_Worth a shot_.  
  
She carefully placed both hands in the proper location, closed her eyes to focus, and prepared to channel the most specific amount of energy she ever attempted through her hands into the woman’s chest.  
  
“Lot of firsts tonight. Well, I always wanted to say this, so I’m gonna. CLEAR!”  
  
She conjured forth a small bioelectric surge.  
  
The result was, if somewhat cliche, electifying. It was like a star exploded in her head, her heart, and her entire body. Some kind of energy feedback blew all her metaphorical circuits, and she felt an intense pain punch her straight in the gut.  
  
The woman’s eyes flew open and for a moment they connected. There was something in those eyes that stared directly into Jessica. Something primal. Important. Her mouth moved to vocalize but a single word, but the word never materialized. Jessica tried to read the lips but the pain was simply too great.  
  
For a moment Jessica felt every nerve in her body firing at once, then absolutely nothing as darkness seeped in to claim her for its own. She saw the crimson and blue lights of a police cruiser cresting the hill above, followed by the silhouette of a woman running toward her just as things went black.

“Jessica!”

\---

_Interstate 395, on the Connecticut/Massachusetts Border, Present Day._  
  
A voice was calling to her. It sounded like Bree at first, but then it changed. Something was off about it.  
  
“Jessica!”  
  
It kept calling, and all she wanted to do was sleep.

“Go away.”  
  
“Jessica!”  
  
Jessica’s eyes finally snapped open and she was suddenly staring down the barrel of a nondescript highway lined with barren trees mixed with evergreens, the sky a powder blue broken up by just the faintest hint of clouds, and the sun still rising in the east, though clearly reaching the apex of noon in the none to distant future.

She blinked, rubbing at her eyes, “how long?”  
  
“About two hours, you were starting to get a little agitated, whatever you were dreaming about, so I figured I’d check on you, sorry about that. You were pretty stubborn about snapping out of it and I have both hands on the wheel here - I know you hate it when I multitask.”  
  
“You always multitask.”  
  
“Yeah, well, can’t fault me for trying to follow the letter of the Drew laws, if not their spirit.”  
  
Carol smiled as she glanced over at Jessica. Jessica’s bleariness started to clear and she saw Carol again in stark contrast to her dreamlike recollections.

Her previously messy ponytail of yesterday was now carefully braided through a hole in the back of a worn old blue baseball cap. It was just a smidge too small for her head but fit well enough for her to sill pull it off. A big white A was emblazoned across its forehead, with _Eagles_ in threadbare stitching embroidered beneath it.  
  
Jessica smiled right back, “Go Eagles.”

“‘We fly high!’” Carol said in response, clearly reciting an old cheer phrase. “I found it when I packed a night or two of clothes, it’s from my high school days, it seemed appropriate.”  
  
“Let me guess...shortstop?”  
  
Carol shook her head and replied, “I wish I was that agile, I was a power-hitter. All power and no finesse, but when I connected that ball was _gone_.”  
  
“Why am I not surprised?”  
  
“Shush, you. I played third most of the time. I was quick enough to be dangerous, but not that quick.”  
  
The monotony of the journey was omnipresent. The veritable sameness of the journey started pressing in on her consciousness once more, so Jessica decided to sit up a bit straighter and rubbed at her eyes and sat back up more fully, glancing around, “So where are we?”  
  
“According to the last time I checked the map, we are about an hour south of Worcester. We hang a bit of a right there, and the rest is gravy.”  
  
“Sounds goo-”  
  
A gurgling sound emanated from Jessica’s midsection. She grabbed it as if to muffle the sound, but it was both impossible and too late. She held on to a sheepish curve of her mouth in exasperated embarrassment.  
  
“Sorry. You said gravy and I guess my metabolism wanted to chime in with an opinion.”  
  
Carol looked over with a genuinely concerned face, “You hungry? We can stop for something.”  
  
“I could eat. But also,” Jessica made a dramatic pause for effect, “...coffee.”  
  
“Alright, let’s stop off here,” Carol replied and took the nearest exit. The sign indicated that they were heading towards a small town called Webster. As they got closer a few pretty old houses came into view, and they passed a wooden sign that said, “Webster, Massachusetts: Where Words Fail!”  
  
Jessica glanced back as the sign blew by, “That is a terrible tourism pun.”  
  
“You have to admit it made you look, though.”

“Hmm.”  
  
After just a moment they were already approaching the main street, a humble affair of old red brick buildings and mom and pop shops seemingly impervious to the march of time. A diner beckoned from the back corner behind a small movie theater and bowling alley.  
  
They pulled into the parking lot and nestled the totally out of place Starkmobile in between a handful of older pickup trucks.  
  
“This place must be good,” Carol said as they walked inside.  
  
“Why do you you say that?” Jessica asked. Carol gestured behind them both before opening the door, “The more pickup trucks you see parked outside a greasy spoon, the better the food is.”  
  
She opened the door, “Ladies first.”  
  
“Funny.”  
  
They were instantly and warmly greeted, presented with laminated menus that promised sundries guaranteed to placate the most plaintive of gurgling guts, and were promptly seated in a comfortable corner booth. After some deliberation, they placed their order and were presented with a veritable cornucopia of artery clogging cuisine.

Digging in, the place was the perfect kind of mixture of quiet coupled with common folk commiserating that it gave Jessica the anonymity and opportunity she was looking for to break the ice about everything. It wasn’t a fine restaurant somewhere, replete with wine and ambiance, but in a way it was perfect. A sort of informal denim and plaid-wearing den of warmth and camaraderie that exemplified a specific part of Carol to her. It was perfect in it’s normalness, when everything else about their situation deviated from it.

_It’s now or never_.  
  
Jessica stared at Carol for moment, the latter not entirely cognizant of the focused scrutiny. She sighed and placed her coffee down gently, “So, I think we need to talk about a few things, built upon what was said before in Tony’s office.”  
  
Carol stopped in the middle of carving into a thick pork chop, somewhat surprised, “Alright.”  
  
“I think you know by now that when Gerry was born, and began to grow, I had my suspicions - crazy, unfounded suspicions, that something was up.”  
  
“You mentioned that, yes,” Carol said taking a bite of porch chop. Jessica gave her a queer look. Carol chewed and spoke out of the corner of her mouth before swallowing.  
  
“I’m multitasking again, aren’t I?”  
  
Jessica gave her a tired smile, “Yes.”  
  
Carol swallowed awkwardly, “Sorry. Go on.”  
  
“Well, it’s just that, over the years I think we’ve seen and done some stuff together that I think connects us in ways that no one else can really claim would you agree?”

Carol nodded, still somewhat oblivious and cavalier about the encroaching tone of the talk, but responded sincerely this time.

“Absolutely. I wouldn’t have anyone else at my side when things really matter.”  
  
Jessica felt a surge of warmth to her cheeks at that, but pressed on, knowing that she had to cut to the heart of the matter. All of this meant more to her now, so very much more, and she had to vocalize it to actualize it, and make it real. Hopefully real enough for both of them.  
  
_And even if it didn’t_, she thought as the sensation of failure and rejection pulled at her heart and almost made her sick, _Carol needs to know_.  
  
_No secrets. We’ve suffered from far too many._

She took a deep breath.  
  
“I agree, and over the years, I think I started taking that for granted. Every time I’ve been in trouble, you’ve been there, or you tore down heaven and earth to get there. You may see the times you weren’t immediately there for me as failures. But they’re not. When you can't be there, you’re somehow still there, in spirit, inside of me. Driving me to be better, to do more, and never give up. I know I’ve tried to do the same for you, and I’ve kept that promise for as long as I’ve been lucky to have you be a part of my life.”  
  
Carol put her knife and fork down and started at Jessica with a focused but inquisitive expression, but didn’t say anything. She just looked, and listened.  
  
Jessica stared into those piercing blue eyes and found succor and solace in them, willing her the power to continue. She pulled from those impossibly clear and bright eyes, the color of sky, her own kind of emotional agency and energy, almost in the same way she did so on a dark night all those years ago.  
  
They were the same eyes that found her when she did not know herself. The same eyes that gave her strength when she was wanting of it, offered her safety when she desired it’s assurance, and in reflective exchange, eyes that took in every overture and measure of humanity and friendship that Jessica offered in return. An invisible tether, an almost divine symbiosis and covenant of trust that transcended words.  
  
And yet, she had to try to find those words. For both of their sakes. It was time to be more.  
  
“I wasn’t meant to be here, with you, with anyone. I was meant to be an instrument, a tool,” Jessica said. “But you gave me the chance to see what more I _could_ be, and what I _can_ be.”  
  
Carol reached out and took Jessica’s hand, “You became an Avenger and the hero you are on your own.”  
  
Jessica rested a hand over Carol's in response, “You once told me about a talk you had with Steve, where you said there were different tiers of hero. No one talks about it, no one mentions it, but it’s there. Unspoked and unbidden but present in how we view each other, and how we view ourselves. Do you remember?”  
  
Looking earnestly back, Carol shook her head, “Jess, that’s not the same thing.”  
  
In reply she simply pressed on, “It is. It completely is. You told him that you realized at some point you had the capability of being more. Doing more. Only you were holding yourself back. I know for a fact I was doing that. I was capable of so much, and then I met you. You may not have given me the direction, but you gave me purpose. Do you understand that?”

“You're giving me too much credit, Jess…”  
  
Jessica shook her head and leaned in, “There's a difference between earning and learning. Anyone can carve their own path, but it takes something else to know what kind of path to take. Lady, the day I met you I knew who I was, but I don’t think I really knew what it meant. But over the years, so much of who I am, and my entire life afterward, has been defined by having you in it.”

Part of Carol’s face skewed slightly and she looked away momentarily as she visibly fought back a wave of unexpected emotion, and slowly took her baseball cap off before looking back up. She nervously laughed a bit in instinctive response to the intense and sudden attack of feeling, “All I did was get thrown off a bridge.”

The left corner of Jessica’s mouth crooked upward and she tilted her head thoughtfully to the side.

“...and into my arms, and my world. I may have saved you first, but you saved me every day in return, in small ways and big ways. You saved me by being my team-mate, my friend, and my confidant. You saved me by giving me something of real, raw, human value. You let me into your life when so few people were allowed that. I got to see what it meant to care about something more than yourself. I got to understand the reason why doing good, actual, demonstrative good, will always matter. _You_ taught me that.”  
  
She paused, and made sure every last bit of this final moment counted, “In every life I save, in every wrong I correct, I see your face.”  
  
Carol just stared, as the realization of what was being said began to sink in. Jessica began to shake slightly, but steadied herself, increasing her grip as she more fully entwined Carol’s hand in hers, “But most importantly, you saved me by simply letting me love you.”  
  
Carol’s cheeks flushed different shades of red, scarlet and crimson and she suddenly realized that the reaction came entirely by surprise again; unsolicited and unbidden. She found that she couldn’t maintain eye contact any longer, and simply looked down at her plate. Jessica refused to let go, of either the hand or the conversation, and continued to speak.

“I know this may be harder for you than it is for me, and I understand that. I respect that. But I will never, ever, lie to you. I kept my thoughts about Gerry a secret because I thought it was simply odd. But know what little we know, and seeing you again, here, helping me, helping _both_ of us….”  
  
She reached over and lifted Carol’s chin up. Jessica saw that her eyes were red and clouded by the early onset and emergence of tears. She wore a confused and startled expression.  
  
“...I knew that I once I had you again, I didn’t want to let you go. From here all the way back to the beginning, you are the literal bookends of my life. You hold it all together, every precious bit of it, and I don’t regret one second that it’s you that binds together the essence of me. All of the pain, joy, sorrow, anger and exultation. I’d live it all over again because it led to this moment.”  
  
She let raised Carol’s hand to her own and kissed it, before looking back up with a mixture of doubt, worry, devotion and absolute adoration.

“I love you, Carol Danvers.”  
  
There it was. Laid out bare. Intentions clear. No lies. No innuendo or ambiguity. They sat there, together, hands and arms grasped in a way that they formed a pyramid on the table. An unbroken conduit.

Jessica kept looking at Carol, and noticed that Carol’s face took on a firm sort of resolution to it, the color in her cheeks fading and lips forming into a determined line.  
  
Carol, for her part in the interim, was a swirl of emotions and considerations. Everything Jessica said hit hard and true, yet she thought of all the things that stood in the way of accepting what was just laid bare before her. She thought of her time with Rhodey, and how others may feel about this sudden change in the relationship professionally, if not interpersonally.  
  
Finally she thought of her own feelings. She never thought of Jessica particularly in that way before, but in some ways in hindsight she always did. There was an intimacy to their relationship that was never shared with anyone else. Not Rhodes. Nor her AA sponsorship with Tony. Not even Mar-Vell. Her relationships were whirlwind affairs that self-destructed more often than not, built on a superficial need to fill gaps in her spirit.  
  
She didn’t want that to happen here. This was too precious. There were so many pitfalls and dangerous consequences... and yet.  
  
...and yet she was Carol Danvers, and fuck it.  
  
All of this rumination transpired over just a short span of time, but it was enough that a root of worry ate away at Jessica’s core. She fretted at what she may have done to one of the most important elements of her happiness.  
  
_Maybe it was too mu-_  
  
Carol suddenly rose from her seat and leaned forward, reaching with her right arm to place a hand behind Jessica’s head, fingers immersed in her hair, and kissed her. It was an attack, almost, a declaration full of immediate force and purpose, lips parting almost instantly as their tongues entwined and Jessica submitted to the raw expression of acceptance and desire. What felt like a moment in time, a culmination of intent and passion, suddenly stretched into an infinite horizon where only where their mouths met mattered. Jessica was enraptured in it, willing to let it swallow her whole.  
  
Suddenly they could hear some cheering and clapping from around them as a few of the patrons noticed, several good-naturedly egging them on. One even shouted, “Put a ring on it!” with a few jovial rejoinders echoing the sentiment.  
  
They broke the kiss momentarily to sheepishly smile at the random encouragement from nearby. Jessica whispered to Carol, “I love New England,” before they kissed one more time, and the soundtrack of nearby cheering continued unabated.  
  
This time they broke the kiss due to the sensation of being watched from somewhere with slightly more intimate proximity. A teenage girl chewing bubblegum in with a faded nametag stared at them, apparently waiting to be sure they were finished before interjecting.  
  
“I have the check here...how we splitting it?”  
  
Carol snatched it as Jessica looked at them both, hiding her smile behind her hands.  
  
“We’re not, I’m buying.”  
  
  
\---  
  
  
A few hours later found them driving back on the same path, but the mood inside the cabin was definitely different. The air felt warmer. The space, far more intimate.  
  
The most distinguishing difference was the most welcome and apparent: both were okay with Carol driving one-handed, as their opposing hands were occupied for a majority of the remainder of the journey entwined in the other.  
  
“So,” Jessica said.  
  
“So,” Carol replied.  
  
“That happened.”  
  
“It did.”

“Do we want to, um….” Jessica said, biting her lip and unable to stare directly at Carol, keeping her eyes fixed on the road ahead.  
  
Carol raised an eyebrow, ball cap back on her head, staring ahead without showing a hint of emotion, “Do we want to what?”  
  
“Talk about it?”  
  
Not taking her eyes off the road, Carol replied nonchalantly, “Oh I think we’ve talked enough,” and untangled her hand from Jessica’s, snaking it over to Jessica’s lap and caressing her thigh, moving her hand slightly upwards while trailing along the inside of her leg before stopping and taking a second to look off the road to wink.

Jessica’s face turned a bright shade of pink and looked at Carol with a surprised expression. Carol wasn't sure if she overstepped the mark, and stammered a bit.  
  
“Sorry if that was a bit forward. I just, well, I don’t typically make moves by halves," Carol said. "I also, well, you’re my first...anyway, you can tell me if that was too much.”  
  
"Yes, I mean no. I mean yes. Okay starting over,” Jessica said, laughing nervously while her brain rebooted itself, but flashing a huge smile, "No, it wasn't too much. Yes, I'm fine."

She then took Carol's hand and guided it a few inches farther inside her inner thigh, "for future reference, this will be one of those times when I’m also okay with you multitasking."  
  
Carol just laughed, “Alright."  
  
“I assume we’re almost there,” Jessica said, as reality came back into focus, and allowed Carol the use of her hand again.  
  
Carol put both hands back on the wheel and nodded, “Yep, we should be...wait a second,” while squinting at a sign coming up.  
  
“What?”  
  
Carol’s face skewed slightly as she blinked and saw another road sign blow by, “Can you bring up a map for me please?”  
  
“I thought you knew this route like the back of your hand?”

Both of Carol’s eyebrows shot up as she gave a look of incredulous surprise, “I did.”

Jessica brought up the GPS on her newer smartphone and handed it to Carol, who had also had a paper map from the glove compartment out and unfolded.  
  
“What? I still prefer analogue for some things,” she said in defense of using both tools to compare.  
  
“Trust me, _all_ of us know that.”  
  
Carol read both for a few more minutes before shaking her head, “I can’t believe it, I missed the exit by about a dozen miles.”  
  
“It’s okay we can backtrack. I hope I wasn’t the reason you were...distracted,” Jessica said with a cavalier glance meant to elicit a laugh.  
  
Carol smiled and gave her some side-eye, “Yes, you are distracting, but no, that’s not why this happened. It’s like I just...forgot. It’s a blind spot, it’s kind of weird. I’ve never forgotten that exit before. Ever.”  
  
She blinked and looked a little concerned. Jessica took her by the hand, “Hey, it’s okay, I’m sure we’re both just a little brain dead from staring at the nearly the same two roads for most of the day.”  
  
“I suppose, ah well.”  
  
They backtracked and were back on the proper route. Carol seemed to shake off the disruption of her mistake and smiled, “Once we get off the exit, the family summer house should be just a few minutes away. I guess I should have mentioned something about it earlier, I suppose.”  
  
Jessica was eating out of a bag of trail mix and stopped, “Mention what?”  
  
Giving off a relatively coy look as she pulled onto the exit that led to the outstretched parcel of land that defined the confines of Harpswell, Maine, “It’s empty for the time we’re there. Not exactly in-season, and Joe has his own commitments now too…so it’s all ours.”  
  
Jessica’s eyes glowed mischievously, “Always wanted to see your bedroom.”  
  
Carol grinned back once more, and it was practically feral.  
  
“My what big teeth you have,” Jessica said and mock-gasped, “I hope you don’t have...untoward intentions on me, Ms. Wolf.”  
  
Carol just gave a mock growl.

_I can tell if I’m turned on or afraid now_, Jessica thought. _Maybe a little of both.  
  
I like it._  
  
“But first,” Carol said, as she drove unto the drive and parked near the estate’s dock that bordered along the water of Broad Sound. “I think I need to take you to the DanverZone.”  
  
They got out of the car and Jessica followed her down the dock somewhat seductively and shooting her a look..  
  
“I thought that was what we were talking about.”  
  
Carol turned around and embraced Jessica and they pressed together, locking together as one soul, another kiss that made up for lost time, deep, rich, and seemingly life-giving. After a moment Carol came up for air and grinned, “Not yet, this is really why we came, after all.”  
  
She produced a device from her pocket and pressed a button, and suddenly the water at the end of the dock drained into a whirlpool of decent size, exposing a hole that went downward. Jessica’s jaw dropped.  
  
“You have a secret lair?! Since when? I want a secret lair!”  
  
Carol looked at her and stated somewhat affably, if not proudly, “Told you I had a place with stuff.”  
  
Jessica stamped her foot, “I want a secret lair!”  
  
“Come on, I’ll show you around, and let’s figure out what’s up with our kid. And _how_ he’s our kid, too.”  
  
Jessica’s already flushed skin from the kiss seemingly blended further into the rose range, and smiled at the comment, and Carol reveled in her expression of blind happiness and joy.  
  
She pointed up towards the house and singled out a specific window that had a small american flag in the corner, along with the NASA logo and the silhouette of a jet fighter and space shuttle.  
  
“Tonight, I’m definitely showing you my old room.”  
  
“Oh is_ that _your old room? I couldn’t tell.”  
  
Instead of a good-natured rebuttal, she silenced her with another kiss. This one lasted a while too.  
  
_She still smells good_, Jessica thought.

At the same time, a realization became clear to Carol at that point. It wasn’t a eureka moment per se, it was an epiphany that arrived without ceremony or spontaneous exposition. A simple declaration of fact that penetrated her consciousness.  
  
Despite all of her seemingly depthless power and ability, she suddenly, and for apparently the first time, felt truly indestructible. Indefatigable. Here and now.  
  
The words of her father, cutting deep into scars that still bled forth into the maelstrom of her psyche, became healed and replaced by the warmth and assurance of the woman before her. The memories of her mother, filled with pride and confidence yet tempered with loss, bolstered her footing with the knowledge that someone else looked to her with such care, instilling the notion that perhaps she was worth being valued beyond simply her abilities.  
  
She breathed in Jessica’s scent, her nose nestled in that thick shock of obsidian, and allowed herself to be loved. The fragility that rested at the core of her being - all the self-doubt and issues of self-worth that bubbled forth from her past - melted away.  
  
No matter what she found, no matter what obstacles were arrayed before her, and no matter the challenges that would be set against her, she knew they would find a solution. She took Jessica by the arms, and they floated down together, staring at each other intimately close, descending down into the depths in search of answers.  
  
Nothing could stop her because nothing could stop _them_. No matter what happens. No matter if she stumbled and fell in a multitude of ways, she would always rise back up. She would always be safe. Safe to be herself. Safe to be who she was always meant to be.  
  
Because Spider-Woman would be there to catch her.


	5. Always You

As they continued to slowly descend together into Carol’s lair, Jessica firmly in Carol’s grasp, the former looped her legs a bit tighter around the latter, making sure that there was appropriate pressure in certain spots. She then slowly rubbed against Carol and grinned, whispering breathily in her ear to make sure that she could be heard over the sound of the circle of falling water surrounding them.

“Just a bit of practicing for tonight.”

On top of that, while saying so, she slowly ran her hands up and down Carol’s side, stopping at her breasts and paying them a significant amount of attention through strategic and overt solicitous groping. They then ran southward into distinctly new territory. Carol gasped in surprise at the doting, and fired back a feral look.

“Careful where you roam, handsy, I may drop you.”

Jessica breathed on her neck and just barely let her nose and lips grace the very surface of Carol’s skin. She knew it was doing something, because goosebumps formed all along wherever she lightly grazed her, the nape of the neck especially.

“You won’t.”

“I’m getting the distinct impression you’ve enjoyed taking the initiative thus far,” Carol replied in a cool, calculated tone, running her hands down the small of Jessica’s back, seemingly unaffected, though Jessica surmised it was all an act to give an air of invulnerability to the clearly overt attempts to get the better of her.

“Not every day I get to catch Captain Marvel on the back foot,” Jessica said as her actions began to produce a reaction akin to a double-edged sword. Her cheeks became slightly flushed, her breathing more sharp, and her extremities began to lightly tingle. Nevertheless, she kept the methodical application of physical pressure going, “I need to enjoy it while it lasts.”

Carol raised her eyebrows and then shot her a very bemused and then slightly cryptic poker face, “Well there’s only one thing I have to say to a bold-faced call-out like that.”

“What?”

“Game on.”

Carol took her completely off guard by running the very tip of her tongue up the side of Jessica’s neck and nibbled on her earlobe, let loose a nigh-guttural growl, and then deeply kissed her. Meanwhile, the hand at Jessica’s back glided smoothly down to firmly and solidly grab her butt, while the other replaced it’s position to keep them secure while they finally floated down to firm ground.

Those two minor actions weren’t exactly gentle either, though Jessica was prepared for that. All that teasing can only lead to one end, and Jessica knew Carol wouldn’t harbor that kind of flagrant challenge. Even so, the intensity of both gestures nearly took her breath away, especially the fondling of her posterior. That was definitely not anticipated.

For all her attempts at entwining herself around Carol, she felt completely held in place, enraptured in her grasp, from the firm grip on her ass to the presence of Carol inside her mouth. It was an unleashed eagerness to explore every inch of her body, tempered only by circumstance, and Jessica was enthralled by it.

It wouldn’t last, though. As their feet touched the ground they broke the kiss, and Jessica’s face was a mixture of stupefaction and complete arousal, her lips puffy and pouty from the sudden abuse of acute affection. She staggered a step or two before finding her footing (and her bearings) once more.

“Someone call an adult, I think I’m too young to ride this ride,” Jessica said breathlessly, a dumb smile forming after a moment of contemplative afterglow.

“Oh, you’re old enough to ride,” Carol shot back as she started walking towards what appeared to be a solid sheet of water, uniform and unbroken. In fact, they both seemed completely surrounded by water, and she wondered what the next step on this journey into Carol’s inner sanctum would entail.

Undeterred, she fired back defiantly, “Oh yeah, who says?”

“Me,” Carol replied, looking Jessica up and down like she was stalking prey. Jessica would never have allowed that kind of behavior from a man, but for some reason Carol sizing her up like a cut of beef was just the kind of inappropriateness she was trying to engender. She craved more of it, this intense need not to be controlled necessarily, but to be wanted so completely. The idea of it was like a drug. Just as soon as the euphoria of Carol’s attention to her body ended, she just wanted to entice her back for more. Teasing. Seducing. Whatever it took to bring her back, to feel her touch.

Carol waved her hand in front of the wall of water and after a series of mechanical sounds and a minor reverberating rumbling sound, a segment of the waterfall parted for her, revealing a passage forward.

“How theatrical,” Jessica commented.

“More like practical, now get that cute butt over here,” Carol replied, pointing directly at Jessica’s back end and to the spot next to her. Jessica blinked at the forward gesture but followed, shaking her head dubiously, “Here I was thinking you’d be shy about this.”

“I’m not shy about anything.”

Jessica couldn’t help but produce a lopsided grin at that defensive observation, “True, but you have to admit you were pretty oblivious at first.”

Carol glanced sharply back, “I’m _never_ oblivious.”

Jessica nearly doubled over laughing. Carol lightly smacked Jessica’s backside as she walked past. She yelped and rubbed her butt like it smarted, “I created a monster.”

“And you’re going to feed that monster you made, little girl,” Carol said as they proceeded further into the tunnel beyond, beckoning Jessica to come with a single curled finger. “You’re just lucky I’m more hungry for answers at the moment. Keep going.”

Jessica crossed her arms and jutted her jaw out obstinately. “I’ll have you know I’m a strong, independent human being with _feelings_,” Jessica said indignantly while shooting Carol a knowing grin, “I refused to be objectified in this way.”

“Says the woman that was straddling me all the way down.”

“I was just securing my position.”

“Oh I got a clear picture of the kind of position you were trying to secure.”

“I resent the implication! Slander!”

“You resemble the implication. It was a pole dance and I was the pole.”

“I feel like I should blush at that, but I literally cannot turn red more than I have in the last 24 hours.”

With as much innuendo laced into the words until they were practically dripping with intent, Carol replied with a straight look, “In the face, at least.”

“Carol!”

Carol didn’t reply, she just kept walking, except this time she walked in a way that was definitely meant to get Jessica’s attention, accentuating assets in just the right way. It succeeded. The light played off of the skin-tight arrangement of Carol’s shirt and jeans, taught muscles beneath tight skin arrayed like an artist sculpted it from a model of peak physical perfection. Jessica wanted to sink her teeth into all of it.

“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think you could pull off sultry, but I’m sold.”

“I told you before, I’m full of surprises.”

“Understatement of the century.”

Carol glanced back, “Fun time’s over, babe. Come on, we’re almost inside.”

Jessica picked up the pace, taking the time to examine the not-entirely-smoothed-put tunnel walls carved out of the bedrock, lights strategically installed in periodic stations to help illuminate the way.

“Just one thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you just call me babe?”

“I’m trying it on.”

“I’ll allow it.”

The path curved slightly and then unexpectedly moved back upwards via a series of short steps. Finally, their destination emerged just around a sharp bend. Before them was a broad cavernous opening, filled to the brim with various equipment. The other side of the space contained a sitting area akin to a country cottage, complete with a cat bed tucked in a corner. A vaulted ceiling shot down enough natural atmospheric lighting to take care of getting around comfortably.

“I really need to get me one of these. I’m giving the whole spider motif a bad name.”

On the technological side of the space sat a series of advanced computer equipment, with a large screen that read “CAPTAIN MARVEL” emblazoned across its surface as a screensaver of sorts. Jessica’s jaw dropped.

“You have a_ logo_!”

“Yeah, that was Tony’s doing. He’s big on branding, and he put together the equipment here, so I wasn't in a position to argue.”

Jessica stamped her foot again for the second time that evening, “I want a logo!”

“Oh my _god_,” Carol replied with a bemused and mock-exasperated expression, “You _have_ a logo, it’s on your suit!”

Crossing her arms, Jessica stared daggers back at her, “You know what I mean, something like that,” and she gestured at the enormous screen with the star-embedded artwork. Carol was still remarkably unimpressed at the tantrum.

“Jealous much?”

“This is not over. Tony and I will have words,” Jessica muttered, walking over to a corner while looking around. She found herself staring up at sealed containers where all of Carol’s original suits were floating in preserved suspension. Another suit that Jessica was unfamiliar with floated alongside the other two.

“Oh my goodness. Your old suits. You kept them…”

Carol walked up behind Jessica and wrapped her arms around her, drawing her in close while they both looked up at the outfits hovering in the sealed chambers, “I did. Those are the original prototypes.”

She pointed at the last iteration of the Ms. Marvel suit, replete with lightning bolt, black thigh high boots and opera-length gloves, “That is the actual original outfit I tried on in a mirror all those years ago, and decided was such a good idea that I fought evil and saved the world with my cheeks out for years.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It was a product of its time, Carol.”

“Debatable.”

“I never complained. Too much.”

“Right back atcha, onesie. Watching you walk away wasn’t ever a bad thing.”

“Crude, but I accept the compliment.”

“I mean, I know my cheeks were out, but you could see _everything._ It was great.”

“Really? Because I’m pretty sure you once compared my old outfit to Watergate.”

Carol scrunched up her face like she was thinking back with intensity then shook her head, “Never.”

“I believe you literally shouted ‘Our long national nightmare is over,’ on the corner of 5th and 59th while nursing a cup of coffee if I recall correctly,” Jessica said with mild joviality, running her hands up and down the arms wrapped around her waist. Carol slowly rocked her back and forth slowly in response.

“I plead the fifth.”

She good-naturedly let it drop and took one of Carol’s hands and examined it closely and fondly before asking, “...Did we always feel this way about each other? Did it just take us this long to figure it all out?”

Carol smirked and replied, “No, I don’t think so. What we had back then was different. I think it was more a ‘damn my bff is a hottie’ thing than what we got going on now.”

She rolled her eyes at the description, “You have such a way with words.”

“Thanks babe.”

She leaned back into Carol, sighing a bit as she felt the other’s presence slowly melt into her as she did so, “Okay, the babe thing is _definitely_ working for me.”

“Good,” Carol said, nuzzling her face into Jessica’s hair and breathing her in scent.

Jessica glanced back up at the encased suits, “Either way, these bring back a lot of memories.”

“Hmm.”

They stood there for a moment, words for that particular instance almost not even needed, as they took stock of their past and present in one intimate passage of quaint reflection. Finally, Jessica gestured over to the tube on the far end, where a green suit with a familiar stylized star sat square and flush in the middle of its chest.

“I don’t recognize that one.”

Carol took a minute to reply, but when she did so she did so quietly, deep and rich with thoughtfulness and whimsical difference, “That is the armor of Captain Mari-Ell, Champion of the Kree Empire.”

“Oh Carol, it was your mother’s, wasn’t it? You told me a bit about what happened. I should have thought that through. I wouldn’t have pried. I should have known...I…”

Carol kissed the nape of Jessica’s neck before she could say anything else before replying, “It’s okay. It’s here for a reason. Just like you’re here for a reason. I’m glad to share it with you. I’m...glad to talk about her to someone.”

“You said her name was Mari...Ell?”

“Yeah, the humanized form was Marie. You know most of the story from my Avengers report. I...didn’t hold back. I’m just glad everyone agreed to seal most of the findings. It’s difficult for me to process all of it still and the last thing I need is some kind of intimate query into my life, or my loyalties.”

“I understand.”

Jessica thought about it for a moment before deciding to take the plunge by asking another question, “Carol, you mentioned that your mom called you another name when you finally learned the truth. Before she passed. What was it?”

Carol paused, and the silence was telling. In a way, to her, any kind of answer felt like it was an admission of something. That possibly she was less, or other. Different. Subject to scrutiny and ridicule. Her Kreeness was a weakness to be exploited. But she knew that the question was in good faith; innocent and heartfelt. So she responded in kind.

“Carol. My real name is Carol. It always will be.”

“I didn’t mean to infer that-”

Carol held her hand up and then extended it to lightly brush Jessica’s face to show her that it everyhting was fine, and the questions she was asking were welcome.

“It’s also Car-Ell.”

“Excuse me?”

“My name. My birth name, I suppose. What she called me in secret, when no one else was around. Not even me. Not even until the end. A secret she kept for so long. Car-Ell.”

“Car-Ell. Carol. I get it. It’s a strong name, and also beautiful.”

Carol just stared at the armor, and then replied in such a fashion that it was clear the words were chosen carefully and specifically, “So was she. More than I realized. More than I appreciated.”

“You know she’d be proud of you, Carol, just as she was before you uncovered all this. I’m sure she had the chance to tell you that at least once. I know she must have. If she’s anything like you, she must have been amazing.”

Carol didn’t respond, but instead squeezed Jessica just a bit tighter, like she was checking if she was actually there. Like she needed the reassurance.

As for Jessica, with Carol’s arms draped around her, she became strangely overwhelmed and grew stone faced and quiet. Almost crestfallen. The sensation came unbidden, and it was fully disarming. No amount of training in obfuscation seemed to mitigate the impact of emotion as it came crashing down over her, and Carol noticed it immediately.

“Jess? What’s wrong? I’m supposed to be the cold and withdrawn emotionally-wounded one in this relationship, remember? Stop stealing my thunder.”

Jessica smiled as best she could, “You never had a monopoly on that role in our little dynamic and you know it. Also, stop trying to make me feel better you butt-head. I’m trying to have an existential crisis here and you’re fouling it all up for me.”

“But ruining your plans is one of my favorite things to do! But seriously, why? Talk to me.”

“Nothing, it’s just...I don’t have a history. Not one I want to claim, anyway. What do you call a product of ambition? An instrument of hate? I have no story. There’s no page one for me, just a black mark. What you have with your mother, even if it wasn’t what you expected, or wanted, you _had_ it. You have this tragically magnificent memory, a splinter of time that’s entirely yours, even with all its complex baggage of love and pain. There’s pride too. I can see it. It’s wonderful, and you shared it with me. Compared to you, I’m just an untethered ghost.”

“Hey.”

Jessica turned her head to the side at the beckoning to look back at Carol in the corners of her vision.

“I’ll be your tether.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Carol turned her fully around, and cradled Jessica’s face in her hands, immersing her in unconditional and unrestrained affection. Light kisses were liberally decorated across her face, until there wasn’t a spot of flesh left that wasn’t touched in some delicate way.

She stared at Jessica’s face as Drew slowly re-opened her eyes after the onslaught.

_She is so beautiful._

“What?”

In reply Carol took the opportunity to kiss her one last time, put on an earnest demeanor, and let go of Jessica momentarily to place her hand on the glass exterior of the display that held her mother’s armor. She stared at her hand, then past it, looking at the swirling cosmos aesthetic that decorated the lower veneer of the illustrious suit. She then looked to the star in the middle, glowing bright and brilliant. Symbols. Ideas given form. Gestures of import meant to convey something greater.

“Carol. What is it?”

“Words. Words aren’t enough, are they?”

“Excuse me?” Jessica asked.

Carol’s expression never wavered as her features were illuminated by the amber lighting bouncing off the various angles of the armor before her. She shook her head.

“Nothing. There’s some place I’d like to take you, after this, before we go to the house. It’s not far away.”

She looked back, “It’s important.”

Jessica nodded and quietly assented to the slightly ominous proposal, “Alright.”

Carol coughed awkwardly and changed the subject by gesturing away from the display towards the lab and communications station nearby.

“Come on, this is also part of why we’re here.”

She took a few vials from a storage container along the way and inserted them into a series of wall-sockets, each socket lighting up with the sudden input of each cylinder’s entry into the wall.

They then walked over to the large computer console and Carol began to input a series of commands. A screen came to life and Tony’s image flickered and materialized on one of the smaller displays.

“I take it you’re calling from your place filled with stuff?” Tony asked with a light-hearted and sarcastic air, “Jen called in. We need to talk after this, briefly. By the way, you owe me a tracking device.”

“We don’t owe you squat you bargain basement Mr. Wizard,” Carol said gruffly but with a hint of a smile, “And yes, we’re here and I’m sending over some of the information I have stored in the database.”

“Receiving it now, stand by, connecting the two research stations - DanverZone and Stark HQ should be communicating to each other momentarily,” Stark said, talking to himself more than anything. “Moira, can you have someone send some coffee up here? I’m running one empty.”

“Right away Tony,” came the familiar AI Scottish brogue from off-camera.

Jessica leaned in to whisper at Carol, “So you _really_ do call it the DanverZone?”

Carol raised an eyebrow, “Wouldn’t you?”

“Point. So what are you sending that you only had access to here?”

In reply Carol pointed towards the floating suits and related equipment adjacent to them, “Samples of my DNA that go all the way back to the beginning, plus residual samples from various equipment and suits I’ve worn in the past that got tore up from fighting. Hair follicles. Blood. Moments in time locked in DNA form.”

“But we already know he’s yours, what’s the difference?”

“The difference is time,” Tony replied from eavesdropping on their conversation. “One of the abnormalities in the matching is that there was a chronological component that didn’t add up. I was getting strange readings from Gerry’s incidental contemporaneous carbon-dating, if you can believe it.”

Jessica blinked in slightly indignant and concerned confusion, “Excuse me, what does that mean for my child in more common language?”

Carol chimed in, “It means that Tony’s equipment is more advanced than a lot of other Radiocarbon methodologies, and we think we have a lead on what may be going on with Gerry by chasing this angle down.”

“You freak me out when you geek out like him.”

“Not to be unfair or pedantic, but she _was_ an astronaut,” Tony replied. “I think sometimes people forget she can keep up with me when I go full techno-babble.”

Carol’s chest puffed out slightly at that. Jessica pointed past Carol at the screen, “You stay out of this, I got a bone to pick with you!”

“What did I do? I’m helping!” he replied incredulously.

She pointed at Carol, “Before I say anything else, I just want to be clear that despite what you may have thought there, I love your sexy brain.”

“Aw, thanks,” Carol replied, deadpan.

Jessica then pointed back at the screen, “I want a secret lair!”

Tony looked at Carol with a look of disgusted resignation, “I told you this would happen.”

Carol shook her head and moved her arms out in a random, waving pattern to channel her frustrated energy, “You both are absolutely hopeless to deal with at the same time.”

“Are not - JINX!” they said in union, pointing at each other. Carol sighed, and continued undeterred.

“..._Anyway_, I’ve transmitted all of these samples and we’re running a contrasting algorithm against Gerry’s DNA information to see if there are any abnormalities and commonalities.”

“There are,” Tony said.

Both women turned to the screen with expectant looks on their faces.

“Moira’s crunching the extraneous data right now, but the initial results are showing a match that a DNA sample of Carol that is from years ago,” Tony clarified.

“Wait what does that mean?” Jessica asked.

“It means that Gerry is technically decades old - I can’t be precisely sure, exact dating in even normal radiation decay is sketchy, let alone trying to isolate one pocket of time within a span of only a handful of years, and no, I’m not entirely sure how that works, but if I was to guess, Gerry was conceived at some point in the deeper past, but didn’t...manifest until your artificial insemination, which from what I can surmise was some kind of catalyst, but the DNA was supplanted with Carol’s from that original inception point.”

Jessica massaged her temples and grimaced, “English.”

Tony jumped in before Carol could clarify, “You’ve been knocked up for years, but it was dormant until you went in to get pregnant, the process jump-started the Danvers bun you already had in the oven, and subsequently Carol’s DNA beat out or somehow supplanted or destroyed the donors’ jungle juice because it got there first.”

Carol sighed, “Thanks Tony.”

“Always happy to help.”

Jessica looked at Carol, and then at the screen, “Okay, so my kid is actually older than he seems, but he’s _still_ a kid right? This isn’t some kind of, well…” she looked at Carol slightly afraid.

Carol took her hands, “Yes, I know what you’re saying. No, it’s nothing like that.”

“Absolutely, he’s a perfectly normal toddler,” Tony said, nodding in assurance, “Although normal I think is a word that is being heavily abused at this juncture and in that context. He is your guys’ kid after all, and whatever is triggering this rapid adoption of Carol’s traits will only accelerate. His cells are just older in that they were created prior to their due date. This violates a few laws of thermodynamics, but since we’re dealing with alien DNA and quite possibly alien technology, it’s not like I can keep the logic of the situation strictly terrestrial any longer.”

“Also,” Tony said, “There’s more. You guys may want to sit down for this one.”

Neither one of them opted to sit down.

“Tony,” Jessica said with a sweet-by-way-of-lethal tone of voice, “What more could there possibly be?”

Tony coughed and sipped on his fresh cup of coffee, “Team lean and green checked in an hour or two ago. First off, I just want to say Gerry’s fine and everyone’s fine. I’m fine. Are you fine?”

“Tony…”

He put the coffee down, sighed, and mustered a reservoir of strength to deliver the next bit of news, “Gerry took his, apparently, first maiden flight off the back patio, but they managed to get him back down.”

“WHAT?” both women blurted out at the same time.

“Allegedly! I didn’t see it first hand. But I hesitate to consider Jessica Jones and Jennifer Walters unreliable witnesses. It’s like I said earlier, his abilities are from both of you, and now that whatever is going on has started, more abilities like that may come to bear. You guys got a flyer now.”

Jessica clenched and unclenched her hands before whirling around to point at Carol, “You..._you_…”

Carol raised her hands in supplication, “Hey, I’m sorry Jess, you wanted me to be the dad, well, here we are. Flying Gerry is a thing!”

Jessica shook her head, “First off, we are _never_ uttering the phrase ‘Flying Gerry’ in my presence _ever_ again. Second, that’s not what I mean. My life is already insane enough caring for _one_ Danvers,” she said advancing on Carol who subconsciously took an equal step back for each put her way, “If he turns out in any way like you, god help us both.”

“Amen to that,” Tony said from between them.

Both women spun back around to face the screen. It was like staring into the face of retribution and death itself.

“I mean, uh, let’s talk about our next plan of action,” Tony stuttered out quickly, taking a long sip of coffee while his eyes darted back and forth between the two of them.

“Alright, what is our next plan of action?” Jessica asked, arms folded.

“I have some more tests I want to run at this end, and that should give me enough clarity to determine if I can more readily address this head-on, now that I’m armed with these additional DNA scans and samples from Carol,” Tony said while typing very quickly and speaking at the same time. “With luck I should be able to synthesize some kind of stabilizing agent that would allow Gerry to mimic some kind of blending of both of your metabolism, essentially stabilizing him.”

“So...stay put?” Jessica said, looking at Carol inquisitively if not somewhat pleadingly.

Carol went to her and held her hand reassuringly before looking at the screen, “For just tonight though, it sounds like, right Tony?”

Tony nodded, “Absolutely, and I promise to let you know if any part of that changes, but I’ll need you at your private lab just in case I need more samples for any specific reason.”

“Thanks Tony, let me know the minute you can tell us anything, for now we’re on stand by,” Carol replied, killing the screen and then turning back to Jessica, who was biting her lip and lost in thought.

“Don’t worry, we will figure this out together, but for now, we’re stuck here for the evening,” Carol said to her, and drew her close. “That was always the plan to begin with, so nothing’s changed. We just know a bit more now than when we started, okay?”

The worry melted away from Jessica’s face as she sighed as an extension of both resignation, but also alleviation, “Okay.”

Carol’s face went from sincere to somber.

“Remember how I needed to show you something? It’s important.”

Jessica nodded absentmindedly, “Alright.”

They ascended into what was rapidly becoming the cool air of the early evening. The sun grew heavy and lazy in the West, and its hue became saturated and warm as it hung in the sky like a lantern guiding the rest of creation towards inevitable slumber. There was a bit of chill that reminded them it was Winter, but it wasn’t oppressive. The sound of the water echoed with a soothing regularity, and the Danver summer home, a humble not entirely small thing, sat above them on the bluff. Replete with tire swing, a barren garden, and various other odds and ends that reflected its formerly important but transient nature as a seasonal dwelling.

Carol gestured farther to the end of the bluff, near an outcropping that could be reached via a crude series of walking stones and gravel that led from the property proper. She began walking, “It’s just over here.”

She said that and nothing more, and proceeded to walk. Jessica zipped her jacket up tighter against the wind and drew her arms in to follow, unaccustomed to the repeated blasts of air emanating from the beachhead.

As promised they reached their destination shortly, and it became clear what awaited Jessica at the end of the trail. The modest path terminated into a small grove, encircled by smooth stones, and a large marker stood there, making itself more known after passing a small mound that shielded the location from view from the street.

Carol gestured around as if trying to explain herself, or her actions, to a trial judge or jury, “There was a spot for her, next to dad. Joe and I, we couldn’t do it. “

“Carol, I…”

“This was always where she was happiest. Near the home. Near the lighthouse. Near the memories. This is the way we wanted to remember her. On her terms. On our terms.”

Engraved on the front of the monument, aside from the atypical series of dates, was a simple enough inscription with a short paraphrased biblical quote, carved deep into the stone enough to weather the erosion of countless years:

_Marie Danvers_  
_ Wife, Mother, Warrior_

_‘Be not afraid,_  
_ I go before you, always.’_

Carol moved a few steps closer to the stone, and then took a deep breath. Jessica watched with a look of inquisitive concern.

“If you need to be alone, for a bit, I underst-”

Carol interrupted and started to speak to the grave.

“Hey Ma, it’s been a little bit since I’ve stopped by. I’m sorry. I got someone I’d like you to meet.”

Jessica froze, looking at Carol with a stunned expression.

“Her name is Jessica, but you can call her Jess,” Carol said, looking back, speaking without stopping. “She’s someone I’ve talked about before. Lots of times, probably when I was ever around long enough to say something. She’s been a good friend to me. I know you always told me I had to try harder to make friends with people, because otherwise one day I’d end up alone.”

Carol paused again to collect herself and laid her hand on the edge of the stone, “I know you were joking in your way, but you were also right. I get it now. I almost did. Lots of times. I kept pushing people away. But not her, never her, we always find our way back to each other,” Carol said, glancing back at Jessica with a warm and heartfelt look, “She’s special.”

Jessica broke at the word _special._ It wasn’t just the term itself. It was how it was said, with such care; drunk and pregnant with import and meaning. It was too much, too quick. She began to softly weep. It came unbidden but not altogether unwelcome, and she raised her hand to cover her mouth from gasping at the sudden rush of it. She didn’t make a single sound, listening to Carol continue.

“Ma, I think she’s more special to me than I realized, and it took a lot out of her to help me comprehend just what that meant,” Carol said. “She’s had a rough go too, like I did, worse even, but she’s like us, Ma. She’s tough, but she keeps going.”

Carol briefly glanced back at Jessica again, “She keeps _helping._ Even if it hurts. When it hurts. She keeps helping and making things _better_. For others. Always for others. Never herself.”

Jessica finally couldn’t resist mustering some kind of protest at the praise, “Carol, I…”

“She understands me.” Carol said, cutting her off again, but with a small smile on her face. She then paused for a minute, mulling her words over before finally finishing the statement, “She completes me.”

She walked over to Jessica and took her by the hand and guided her back to the front of the grave, “But now she’s almost alone herself, because she decided she wanted me over a lot of different things. A lot of important things. Choices she could have made. Lives she could have had, but she chose me instead. But she needs to know that’s okay,” Carol said, “Because I choose her too.”

She leaned in and kissed Jessica’s cheek and glanced down at the grave, then up towards the slowly developing twilight, for just a fleeting moment, “I love her Ma, and if any part of you is still here or listening, I just wanted you to know that you don’t have to worry about me anymore, because Jessica is always with me, just like you were.”

They stood there and looked at the grave as it’s backside was graced by the dying sun, then turned to see it’s glow shattered and spread across the distant edge of the water behind them, a thousand miniature horizons that crept up to where they stood. A veritable and literal sea of stars. Carol turned to Jessica.

“I realized I never said it back, and I wanted to, but I wanted to do it and mean it.”

Jessica wiped at the tears from her face, saying nothing. Carol leaned in close and took Jessica’s hands and held them to her chest.

“I love you Jessica Drew.”

In that moment was forged a covenant far greater than any their spirits thought capable of undertaking. Two runaway souls found themselves, and at last afforded each other the most precious gift of all: a place to finally rest in each other’s hearts.

Jessica knelt down in front of the carved edifice, hand lightly touching it’s smooth, weather-beaten surface. It was already showing the tell-tale marks of exposure to the elements, but it remained firm and resilient - just like the legacy of the woman whose body resided below.

“I’m glad to have met you, Mari-Ell. I’ll take good care of her, I promise.”

Carol looked away, unable to fully contain her reaction at the gesture. Jessica got back up and comforted her.

“It’s okay.”

Carol still couldn't quite look at her, or the grave. She was fighting back her own demons as tears eased their way into her eyes.

“I had to bring you here, do you understand?”

“I do.”

“I should have been around more, I should have found out earlier, there’s just so much…”

“It was enough,” Jessica said as she grabbed both sides of Carol’s face and forced her to look at her, eye-to-eye, “She loved you…Car-Ell. Whatever you did, who you became, and everything else. It was enough.”

Carol grew quiet, but she nodded. Jessica kissed her forehead and rocked her back and forth in her arms.

“It’s okay,” Jessica repeated. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. We can stay here as long as you want. Come on.”

They walked to a nearby stone bench that faced the shore, obviously erected on the spot for the purpose of reflection, and waited for the dying of the light. They spoke of stories and memories. Shared experiences and recollections. A series of compounded reminisces that carried them through a range of emotions and conversations that contained words brought forth from the vaults of time.

The sun set, and they found themselves sitting in the dull ache of evening, in between the thick fixture of night and the ephemeral remains of the day, their hands still entwined.

Jessica smiled slightly, “Do you think she would approve?”

Carol returned the smile and nodded, wiping away an errant tear, “She’d love you without condition.”

“Why?”

There was a benign tilt to the Carol’s face as she answered, almost as if the answer was already obvious, “Because _you_ love me.”

After a moment Jessica delicately extracted herself from the intimate cuddle they knotted themselves into on the bench and looked at Carol with a strange expression, as if memorizing every facet of her Carol’s features, until the latter finally responded to the intense scrutiny.

“What?”

“Not to ruin this moment, but…” Jessica started to say before trailing off.

Carol leaned forward, “You can tell me anything.”

Jessica fixed her with a stern gaze, “I want you. Now.”

Carol glanced around the surrounding area, “Want me where? To do what?”

Jessica widened her eyes and gestured at the house with her head, “No, I want you. Now.”

Carol stared back, blank-faced.

“Carol for the love of... don’t ask me to get more specific than that, here,” Jessica said, glancing back at the grave with a plaintive look, saying the last word through gritted teeth and a hint of embarrassment, “_Please_.”

Suddenly, and mercifully, a dim bulb brightened.

“Oh,” Carol said.

“Oh,” Jessica replied and nodded with a wry look. “From wolf-like ladykiller to cute clueless jerk in a span of just a few hours.”

“Oblivious?”

“Oblivious, but undeniably cute, despite yourself.”

“I deserve it,” Carol said, and pulled Jessica up into a kiss that literally lifted them both off their feet. They rose into the sky, lost in each other’s intimacy in a kiss that spread into sucking and biting along necks and abused, flushed lips. Finally Carol came up for air, and they glided back down to the ground near the front step. “Time to show you inside.”

Jessica, with two feet firmly on the ground and able to fully take in oxygen again, leaned against Carol, “Okay...that made up for being oblivious.”

“More where that came from.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Carol began to rummage under a bunch of rocks near the front door. Starting with one, then another, then another. After each subsequent apparent failure in her goal, the pace accelerated frantically.

“Come on…” Carol muttered to herself while continuing to search and ferret out every available stone nearby.

“Uh…” Jessica said, “What are you doing?”

Carol swore while picking up a few more scattered rocks around the defunct garden that ran around the trim of the entrance of the house.

“I can’t find the key rock.”

“Sorry?”

Carol got up and slapped her hands against her hips in frustration, “I swore I knew exactly what rock it was. It’s a fake rock that has a key to the front door in it. But my mind is a blank. Again.”

Jessica put her hands on her hips, “Wait you guys actually use one those things? I thought they were gimmicks.”

“Hey, hiding a key in a random place or fake rock is a Danvers family secret that we stand by. It’s foolproof!”

“Yeah, foolproof here in the middle of BFE. Try this literally anywhere else and you’re asking to get robbed.”

“I will not have my family’s time-honored security procedures besmirched,” Carol said while still rooting around the ground like a pig hunting truffles.

Jessica face palmed slightly then peaked out from between two fingers and pointed towards the dock, “You have an _actual secret lair_ right over there and you have a key to your house that was _in a fake rock_?”

Carol turned around and looked hurt, though it was certainly for show and sympathy points, “Well when you put it that way, you make it sound bad.”

Jessica sighed, “God I’m a sucker for when you act like your feelings are hurt.”

“Apology accepted, now help me look.”

They rummaged around for a minute until Jessica looked down and spotted a horribly painted and clearly plastic rock hiding in a nook near the base of the front porch, “...wait, is that it?” she asked, pointing.

Carol crooked her head and crawled on all fours over to the corner in question and looked down, “Son of a bitch.”

“We are never doing a fake rock thing for when we live together.”

“As you wish,” Carol replied as she freed the key from the rock using a twist cap at its base, and then proceeded to unlock the door. She opened the front door wide, gesturing, “After you again, Ms. Drew.”

“You really know how to keep the sexual tension going.”

Carol rolled her eyes, “Get in here before I pick you up and carry you in here.”

“Ah, that’s the spirit,” Jessica said and winked. “No ass-grabbing until I’m fully inside, though.”

“I make no promises.”

They both stepped inside and were greeted by a well-kept living room with most of the furniture covered in a thin white sheet, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Most of it seemed to be a combination of contemporary and antique, and decidingly comfortable. Jessica exposed one item after another until she finally uncovered a giant couch, and tossed a few blankets on it while Carol stoked a fire in the fireplace, and turned on some lamps.

After things were lit and cozy enough, however, most pretense was abandoned. As the fire crackled and the heat in the room reached a point where things were comfortable, Carol made up for her earlier obtuseness by crawling across the couch and kissing Jessica as they both slowly shed their clothing. Jessica unzipped her jacket and tossed it aside instantly. Carol unbuttoned her plaid shirt, and threw it onto Jessica, who laughed as she laid it aside onto the floor. Hands moved across each other's bodies as fingers traced the contours of each other’s curves with each new inviting exposure of flushed skin.

Jessica, after a particularly heated kiss, came up for air and said, “Remember when you said ‘Game on’?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Carol asked defiantly while removing her bra and straddling her. Jessica was in awe of her beautifully muscled midsection and breasts, reaching out hungrily to take one of Carol’s nipples in her mouth, teasing it with her tongue while Carol started to close her eyes in response.

Her eyes flashed with delight and menace as she said, “Game on, yourself,” and pinched her legs around Carol like a vice, flipping her onto her back with a swift leveraging of thigh muscles, “Learned that one from watching Romanov at work. Didn’t think it would come in handy here.”

Carol, breathing heavily, chest and cheeks now flushed as sweat began to form over her toned body, smiled devilishly back, “Oh look here, the spider thinks she has me in her we-”

Jessica slid down quicker than Carol thought possible and suddenly her pants were down around her ankles, and Jessica was running her tongue swiftly back up the inside of her right leg, from ankle all the way up, stopping short of licking her sex, then retraced the same steps with her nails as she kissed her across the entirity of Carol’s body.

Carol kicked her pants off the rest of the way and groaned in response, hands in Jessica’s hair as she gently guided her back up to kiss her deeply and passionately. Jessica pulled away just long enough to gloat, “you_ are_ in my web. Get used to it.”

“Oh, we only just got started,” Carol snapped back, removing Jessica’s top and practically ripping off her bra, exposing her firm and ample breasts. Carol then sucked on them both, hard, ravishing them as Jessica made wild, inhuman noises with each sensual manipulation of flesh.

“Yeah, suck my tits,” Jessica said with a dark intensity, the coarse language causing Carol to pay them extra attention. She let go of one with a wet sound of release before groping and latching her mouth onto the other. She practically feasted upon them, leaving red marks from her focused ministrations.

Finally, Carol turned the tables back into her favor as she spun Jessica around to her back, twisting them both in midair to do so, using her self-generated lift of flight and weightlessness to pull Jessica’s pants clean off.

“No fair, no one said anything about using powers! Yellow card on the field!” Jessica cried out with a flushed face and flashed a smile. She pulled her underwear off in one clear jerk and kicked it somewhere into a dark corner.

Carol just growled and lowered them both back down while she kissed Jessica’s equally toned midsection, running her lips against Jessica’s skin, slowly moving up with successful applications of kissing and assorted delicate licking. She massaged one breast with her hand and sucked deeply and hard on the nipple of the other.

Jessica made a strange, wild, guttural noise of absolute abandon and pleasure in reply, and managed to get out only a few words while Carol slowly began to snake her hand farther down Jessica’s body.

Carol muscles and physique were on full display as she practically held Jessica up above the couch, entirely under her own power and thrall. Carol inserted two fingers inside Jessica slowly, finger-fucking her and kissing her passionately, forcing and lashing their tongues together in an intimate and perverse dance. Jessica surrendered her physical autonomy in exchange for the sheer pleasure of everything being done to her. She ached for it. She could feel her body building to a climax, and she held it back, making a single demand of Carol in between gasps.

“Carol, take me to your room.”

The request set off a wild reaction of lust inside of Carol, who effortlessly and simply lifted Jessica off the couch like she weighed nothing at all, carried her cradled in her arms, and then flew up the stairs, down the hall, and into her old room.

It was just as she left it, full of elements of a younger Carol Danvers with dreams and aspirations. Posters and books on space and science, diplomas and early military honors. Her before everything. Honest. Sincere. Authentic. An innocent core the identity of the woman she loved. This was the room she wanted Carol to take her in, and the lewd and desirous knowledge of that caused her to slowly finger herself and kiss Carol aggressively as she was placed on the bed.

“Fuck me now.”

Carol kissed her and then began moving farther and farther down, spending time on her breasts, and then her stomach, her thighs, and then finally burying herself into Jessica’s vagina as Jessica withdrew her own fingers to give Carol unrestricted access. Carol moved her tongue rhythmically while penetrating her and searching for her clitoris. When her tongue found it’s purchase, Carol began to firmly lick over and over while inserting another finger inside her, slowly pushing it in and out in tandem with her mouth’s work.

“Faster, _harder_!” Jessica shouted between gasps of powerful, body-shaking ecstasy, “Fucking _take_ me, dammit, _make_ me _yours_.”

Carol grunted in reply and aggressively grabbed Jessica’s ass, lifting her up against the headboard, then higher, continually fucking her with her fingers and face as the wet sounds of her efforts echoed around the room from the repeated excersions.

Jessica used her power to fix herself in place as they gyrated together, the wall itself becoming a new viable surface for their lovemaking. She grasped Carol’s head and lovelingly ran her fingers across her scalp as she looked down at Carol burying her face in her. The sight drove her over the edge and she climaxed, pushing harder and harder against her as she surrendered to it. Carol rose back up and kissed Jessica forcefully as both of their bodies, sweaty from the excursions, clumsily slid against one another.

Bareback against the wall, now a few inches above the ground, Jessica could taste herself as Carol’s tongue swirled against hers, and it drove her further into heated oblivion as she could feel Carol’s fingers inside her again, claiming her again, and she opened her legs further to allow it. She could feel herself crest upon the next wave of pleasure. Carol’s other hand squeezed her right breast and then pinched her hardened nipples, simply uttering one word while thrusting into her.

“Mine.”

The declaration of possession drove all sense of reason from Jessica, and she craved nothing more than the next wave of sensory overload as Carol took her.

“Fuck...fuck...yes…I’m _yours_,” Jessica whispered as their foreheads briefly met, repeating it over and over with what limited energy she could afford to the production of speech. “I’m all yours, baby.”

The only conscious thought that remained was that she wanted all of it. She wanted to be Carol’s forever, to share everything that she was with her, and forced her body to plunge downward into sympathetic response to the penetrations, her muscles growing taught as the pleasure and tension built deep inside, yearning to be brought forth.

Carol pulled her off the wall and they floated into the room, entangled. It was akin to being held by an angel. She never felt more alive, more real, than in this moment. Someone desired her for nothing more in return than the love she gave freely. Her hands felt electric, and she could feel and see small connecting sparks arc across the surfaces between her fingers. A few strands of bio-electric energy peeled off from the tips, dissipating into the room like tiny ephemeral fireflies. Their minor illumination bathed both of their naked forms in a warm glow, like magic.

They eventually found themselves back on the bed, Carol once more between her legs. She groaned and cried out in raw, stochastic bursts with each deliberate ministration made to her and inside of her. Jessica reached a moment of total ecstasy and obsequiousness, surrendering to a culminating apex of pure exaltation. It caused her nerves to combust in a million separate points of absolute bliss. She cried out with abandon and came one final time all over Carol's face, and the latter didn’t entirely stop until the shuddering and moaning subsided. Carol then slowly, finally, rose back up and kissed her, and they reveled in the sublime and erotic mixture of each other's taste and scent.

Jessica took a moment to recover, but recover she did, the benefit of either adrenaline or her supersized abilities contributing to the quick resurgence of her constitution. She lifted herself up on her elbow and returned the kiss with a degree of equal compelling force.

Afterward, she looked at Carol: golden hair a mess of matted strands, flushed but with a glimmering boyish grin. She realized how much she loved that stupid face, especially now.

“Carol?”

“What is it, hot stuff?”

“My turn.”

And with that, Jessica lowered herself to Carol’s body, teasing and squeezing her cuter, smaller and rounder breasts with equal measure before also crawling down between Carol’s legs and returning the favor tenfold.

Carol closed her eyes and groaned audibly as her hands snaked down to cup the back of Jessica’s head, fingers curling into Jessica hair, forcing her face harder into her opening. Jessica ran her tongue along the walls of her sex and then moved, teasing the hood before holding steady there, flicking it over and over while also penetrating her with almost half her fingers.

“More.”

Jessica obliged, and Carol accommodated nearly the rest of the fingers effortlessly, crying out with that odd and knowing mixture of pleasure and pain, plunging her body down on both Jessica’s face and her intruding digits with singular drive. She was fierce and relentless in the act, a loss of restraint seldom unleashed in Jessica’s presence until this moment as all was laid bare in the shared act.

“God, Jess, yes...please... _more_,” Carol suddenly pleaded with an uncharacteristic earnestness, and in that moment, Jessica took a chance and stopped altogether.

“...wha?” Carol said in a foggy haze, looking down at Jessica with a look of absolute primal need and lust. It was almost pitiful, and it drove Jessica mad. She had to refrain from pleasuring herself at the sight of it.

“I want you to _beg_ for it,” Jessica said, thrusting and dangling her breasts out in front of Carol, hands dancing along her thigh.

Carol groaned in pleasure in response to the proposition and provocation, proving Jessica’s theory right. Jessica let Carol suck on one of her breasts and then callously removed it, then lowered her face downward again and teased the sides of Carol’s vulva, running her nails yet again along the inside of her thighs.

She kept roaming, lightly touching her to elicit a reaction but never fully committing, her mouth dangerously close, randomly licking here and there. Carol moaned in delirious agony, uttering whimpering, simpering, and heartfelt pleas.

“Please, Jessica, I want you inside me.”

She slowly inserted one finger back inside Carol and flicked her tongue across her clit. Carol jerked and squirmed, trying to force her body towards Jessica, who intentionally withdrew, depriving her of control or even one iota of satisfaction.

“I know you want it. Tell me you need it.”

“I_ need _it._ Please!_” Carol said earnestly, staring down at Jessica with those clear blue eyes that drove Jessica wild, piercing right into her soul. Except this time those eyes were filled with desire and want, and they willfully gave her the keys to their release and absolution.

The begging put Jessica over the edge, yet she held back for one more. Something that, deep down, she needed to hear. She needed to hear someone truly want her. For more than her abilities. For more than her power. Someone who just wanted her, primal, real and honest.

“Tell me you need _me_ to _fuck_ you.”

“I need _you_ to _fuck me_.”

Carol rose up with superhuman speed, locking eyes with Jessica, exhibiting just one moment of lucidity that spoke volumes with its raw sincerity.

“Just you. Only you. Always you.”

That was all she needed. Jessica stopped the teasing and used her own superior agility and spider-like manipulation of limbs to position her body in a way that allowed her to resume her delicate balancing act of fingering of Carol while also doting on her breasts with her hands, sending the latter over the edge almost immediately.

Jessica leaned in and whispered in Carol’s ear.

“Let go. Let it all go. Cum for me, baby. Cum for me.”

Carol’s back arched and the entire bed shuddered at the sudden shifting of force, collapsing squarely to the floor, though neither of them seemed to care as the mattress itself continued to do it’s duty.

Every muscle on Carol’s chest and thighs seemed to flex at once, and Jessica looked up to behold it all from her position. Covered in each other's sweat and fluid from hours of unbridled sexual attention, Carol glistened like newly fine cut marble as moonlight caught her in that other poetic form of death, an alabaster Artemis languishing in glorious rapture.

“Yes, yes, yes!_ FUCK!_”

Jessica was fixated upon the sight, taking her free hand and gripping one of Carol’s, who latched onto it like an anchor. She couldn’t take her eyes off the perfection of Carol’s body, resplendent in its beauteous agony as she climaxed.

Carol screamed. Her voice broke from the sheer vociferous volume of it, but her body continued on without her, wracked with a quivering, shuddering violence. It was terrifying. It was breathtaking. It was magnificent. Finally, blissfully, mercifully, she relaxed and fell back down to the mattress.

Jessica released her hand and ran it gently over Carol’s stomach, now free of tension, watching her chest slowly rise and fall. She leaned in and kissed her, this time a simple and soft thing. A confirmation and resolution. A baptism of sorts, as they both bathed in each other's water, and entered a new chapter of union.

Throughout the course of the night they continued, the sounds of their acts careening up and down the entire second floor, until finally they laid out together on the collapsed bed, staring up, cradled in each other’s arms.

“I’m so sore,” Jessica said.

“Me too,” Carol replied.

“Bullshit, Captain Marvel. I can tell you want more, and I want to give you more. I want to keep going, but…” Jessica trailed off, slightly disappointed in herself but smiling nevertheless.

Carol shook her head, eyes sleepy and content, “Plenty of time for more. Our entire lives.”

“I fucking love you.”

“I fucking love _you_.”

Jessica wiggled her toes and stared down at her body, then Carol’s, and giggled a bit, “I guess we can say that now with some conviction.”

“Hmm.”

They exchanged another kiss and Jessica stared back up the ceiling. Jessica laughed a bit and Carol looked over at her with a question on her face.

Jessica glanced over at her with a goofy smile, “I know I wanted this, and I did, and it was great, but I have to say there are a few unexpected repercussions to making love to you in your old bed.

“Aside from irrevocably breaking it?”

“Aside from irrevocably breaking it, yes.”

“Illuminate me.”

Jessica gave her a shocked look, “I thought I just did, several times.”

Carol kissed her shoulder as surrogate for the usual playful jab.

“Alright alright,” Jessica said laughing, and pointed at the ceiling, “For one, I can’t tell if it’s a mood-killer or super turn-on that we had sex beneath a canopy of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets.”

“Totally a turn-on, those things are vintage and absolutely set the mood,” Carol said definitively while slowly and appreciatively running her hands across Jessica’s body. Jessica gave her a side-eye.

“Don’t mind me, just a victory lap,” Carol said while being gentle her in explorations, her fingers causing goosebumps to appear with every application, reveling in seeing and knowing every beautiful inch of Jessica.

“I’ll allow it,” Jessica said playfully, watching Carol’s hands spend time around the curves of her breasts, then pointed to the wall, “The other thing is, I’m not sure how I should feel about this giant poster of Neil Armstrong staring down at me telling me I have the ‘Right Stuff.’”

“Trust me, you do,” Carol said while terminating her hand’s journey of her body by laying her arm behind Jessica’s head to prop it up next to her.

They laid like that for a while, the light of the moon angling slightly farther and farther away to mark the time. A fox could be heard shouting in the distance, searching for a warm place to bed for the night. The old house added it’s own soundtrack as it settled. Jessica turned to Carol with a serious look.

“Carol, is Gerry going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine, because we’ll make sure of it. But either way, I know he’ll come through this okay. Better, even. Want to know why?”

“Why?”

“Because part of me is in that kid, and that means part of my mom is in there too, and with all that stubborn blood in there, nothing’s going to keep him down. Not only that, he’s a Danvers and he’s you. A dynamite combination, if I do say so myself.”

“Absolutely explosive,” Jessica whispered, smiled, and nestled her head underneath Carol’s chin, eventually falling asleep. Nothing more really needed to be said. Nothing more could be said. There was only so much room for worry. But there was greater room for hope. Especially now, in the tenuous and tremendous afterglow of something so monumental: the birth of a wondrous future, and unfolding of all the potential that came with it.

For a while longer Carol continued to stare straight up to look at the plastic stars that decorated the ceiling, hearkening back to a memory of doing so, very long ago. For some reason, she couldn’t remember exactly _when_ she did it, but she obviously put them up at some point in her youth. They were perfect, still offering a soft glow after all these years, like a pleasant fading memory.

“Nothing is stronger than star stuff,” she whispered to herself, and kissed Jessica’s head.

Eventually she too fell asleep, and they stayed that way until morning came.

\---

Jessica Jones and Jennifer Walters were superheroes with a historical pedigree of beating the odds, overcoming all challenges, and saving the day. Nothing could stand in the way of their combined ingenuity and raw power.

That is, of course, until they met Gerald Drew.

“Incoming!” Jones yelled as Gerry flew past her going fast enough that the embedded glass in the kitchen rattled. He stopped almost instantly and was suddenly playing calmly with one of the many distracting toys Jennifer strategically laid around the house to capture him in moments of quiet focus like this.

“There, he should be good for a bit,” Jennifer said.

“I don’t understand why we don’t just, ya know, shack him up in one of those S.H.I.E.L.D. container things or send him back to the Avengers.”

Jennifer looked over at her, “I get it, I do. But first off, we promised Jessica we wouldn’t do that unless it’s a last resort, and second, Gerry takes any kind of sudden movement to constrain his efforts as play. And the last time we tried that, you went through the wall.”

“Pfft, it wasn’t load-bearing, I’m fine,” Jessica replied, cracking her back again almost in sympathetic memory to the moment and gestured at the giant hole in the drywall and floor that led into the now well-lit theater room.

“Be that as it may, we can handle this for now,” Jennifer replied, “For their sake at least. Until they get back.”

“Well at least he’s still letting us give him his medicine,” Jessica said, “Thank god these hypo-spray thingies don’t hurt or we’d be up shit creek.”

With a calculated know-it-all glance, Jennifer replied, “Hypo-sprays are from Star Trek. These are hypodermal compressors.”

Jessica rolled her eyes, “Sorry if I don’t know the proper technical term, Jenny. Also, that’s the same damn thing.”

“Is not.”

She then pointed at Jennifer and continued, “Which reminds me, the second this little mini-Carol/Jess nightmare show starts evolving into a situation where I’m dodging photon blasts, I am so gone.”

Jennifer shook her head and smiled without even showing a hint of taking the ongoing show of pro-level curmudgeoning and complaining seriously, “No you won’t.”

Jessica pointed again, “You’re right, I won’t, but I feel like I had to, to pretend I would feel better about myself and this entire FUBAR situation.”

Interacting with Gerry on the floor, Jennifer replied, “Hush and help me clean some of this up, then we can make dinner.”

Suddenly a soft low-level siren began to go off, the sound apparently wired to permeate the entire length of the house and surrounding premises. Jessica looked at Jennifer.

“What now?”

Jennifer stood up and ran over to the security panel in the kitchen, slowly checking some of the camera feeds, “That’s the perimeter alarm, we got company.”

A voice could be heard from the patio door, which was now inexplicably ajar. The both turned and saw a blue-skinned woman in a uniform not unlike Captain Marvel’s standing, holding Gerry in her arms.

“Boo!” Gerry said, looking up at the woman who smiled down at him.

“Very good, young man, you’ll be a verbose scholar yet,” the woman said.

Jessica got up, “I don’t know who the fuck you are but you just picked the wrong party to crash, lady.”

Jennifer also stood, “I know who you are. You’re Minn-Erva.”

The woman raised a finger, “_Doctor_ Minn-Erva if you please, and I figured you might, you’re typically one of the few Avengers that remembers their homework assignments,” the woman said sardonically, “And there’s no need for such harsh language and violence...this time. See? No harm done.”

She put Gerry down and he wobbled over to Jennifer who picked him up, “Gee!”

“What do you want?” Jennfier asked warily. “You clearly came here for a reason.”

“I’m here to help our young friend here, before his condition worsens and he takes out half the eastern seaboard,” Minn-Erva replied testily, laying particular emphasis on the end of the statement.

“Half the what?” Jessica asked.

Minn-Erva ignored Jessica and continued her small exposition, “Despite Mr. Stark’s best efforts I’m afraid I know what ails Gerry here, and sadly it’s tied intrinsically to who, and, namely, what he is.”

“What do you mean what he is?” Jessica then asked with balled fists. “I’m getting real tired of the James Bond villain thing where you’re saying a whole lot of nothing, girlfriend.”

“Agreed. You got 10 seconds to explain before I go big, green and ugly on you,” Jennifer said.

“I will only explain the rest to Car-Ell, for I need to discuss something of import as part of fixing this ever-so-delicate situation,” Minn-Erva replied. “But you may consider me your ‘prisoner’ or whatever obtuse thing will placate you in the interim until we parlay. It’s in the best interests of this child, your planet, and our mutual interests. I guarantee that your beloved Captain Marvel needs just as much help as the child does, she just doesn’t know it yet. Or maybe she does. More's the pity if it is that far along already.”

She then showed her wrists and grinned, “Take me away, I am at your mercy. I need to speak with Mr. Stark about the particulars anyway, otherwise this will be a laborious process in earning your trust. Time is a resource we do not actually have an abundance of, sadly.”

“What do you want to discuss with Carol that will magically solve all our problems?” Jones asked guardedly while producing some elastic cuffs from her pockets and binding Minn-Erva’s hands up.

Minn-Erva smiled as her wrists slowly were clasped together, “An offer she can’t refuse.”


	6. In the First Place

“Jessica.”  
  
_On god, not again._  
  
Once again, a voice penetrated the wall of sleep. The voice was different this time. It was softer, yet urgent, and more clear and potent. Definitively masculine, and extremely annoying.  
  
“Don’t wanna,” Jessica replied, though she realized that in some strange way her voice possessed an odd kind of reverberation, as it it was echoing off a network of walls within walls, vast and labyrinthian in scope. She had to be dreaming, she reasoned. Best to ignore it and wait for sunrise to burn it away.  
  
“Jessica Drew.”  
  
“It’s not a school day, you can’t make me get up,” she replied testily, and if there were blankets, she would be drawing them over her head. She reached for the warmth of Carol’s shoulder, and grasped an armful of nothing.  
  
“_Spider-Woman.”_  
  
The insistence of the voice, coupled with its emphatic tone, coincided with her sudden realization that Carol was no longer there, nor were blankets, pillows, and other accoutrements of slumber. She rose up swiftly, and then just as quickly jumped to her feet in a panic. She glanced down during her haste to rise and noticed that she was wearing her old suit. The difference would be subtle to some who didn’t know better, but when something is worn that intimately against your nooks and crannies for enough years, it tends to leave an impression in more ways than one.  
  
Whatever this was, and however she got put into it - an altogether more disturbing thought that was quickly shelved for the sake of expediency - was a variation of her original suit, replete with old but familiar sensations and taut tugs in corners that were common before innovations and changes were made to it over time.  
  
_Wow, a classic_, she thought. _Haven’t worn one like this in years._

That’s when she realized she was analyzing the particulars of her choice of suit in a void. There was only the floor, with a single indiscernible source of light illuminating her position from above. Beyond the confines of the illuminated segment of wherever she was lied a vast bleak darkness that seemed to stretch on forever.

_This should probably be more disconcerting to me_ _than what I’m wearing._  
  
She glanced down one more time.  
  
_Probably.  
_

“I apologize. You appear disoriented,” the now-familiar voice said from her right, “Please know that if there are elements that seem incongruous with what you now know, I have no way of cataloguing the specifics of passing events, nor contemporaneous changes. This space is meant to be strictly a medium of communicating with the host consciousness.”  
  
She turned, and under a separate spotlight sat a bald-headed man in a smart but dated-looking three-piece suit, the patterns in the fabric long since fallen out of fashion. He sat in a wheelchair with a calm and placid look on his face, his brown eyes conveying a kind of surreal serenity. She recognized him instantly.  
  
“Charles?” she asked in a somewhat declarative way, unsure of what was real any longer. She tried to walk over to him, but only got so far before some kind of invisible force held her at bay. He was within just a dozen feet, but that was all that was apparently allowed by this unseen barrier. He raised his right hand, palm out, in warning.  
  
“Hello Jessica, it is good to see you, in a manner of speaking, although I believe I should explain myself before we discuss anything further,” he said. “This is unfortunately as close as we can get, the way I erected this artificial memory palace did not allow for much detail or interactivity, to leave as little impact on your subconscious mind as possible.”  
  
She leaned back on her back foot and crossed her arms, “Alright, I’m listening, and am I to believe I’m somehow in some kind of intimate dark corner of my own mind?”  
  
“Somewhat simply put, but yes,” he said, nodding, “We are conversing in what I would describe to be a pocket of my consciousness in your own mind, like a pocket universe in a sense, but it would be more accurate to call it a manifestation of powerful suggestion. I essentially copied a shred of myself and planted it here as a warden, and I am the avatar of that act designed to converse with you in just this fashion should the need arise.”  
  
“I don’t exactly recall agreeing to that, Charles,” Jessica said somewhat defensively.  
  
He raised his hand again, and moved his wheelchair as close to the barrier between their positions as he could, the unseen light following, “I understand and know how this must appear: a gross invasion of your privacy. There is a reason for this, and know I have no power to observe your movements or affect your judgement, I was put in as a precautionary measure and have been dormant until this exact moment.”  
  
“When?”  
  
“Not shortly after you called us that night in San Francisco, when you rescued Carol Danvers.”  
  
Suddenly the quiet blank void melted away and she was standing on a bluff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, with San Francisco behind her, glowing in the faint moonlight of the ides of March. Everything seemed so _real._ She could hear the flow of traffic beneath her, the salty spray of the bay assaulting her sense of smell. That sharp bite of ozone in the air. It was like she was there again. Xavier pulled up alongside her, staring down at the bridge.  
  
“How?” she asked, looking down at him after taking in the strangeness of the sight.  
  
“You thought of that auspicious night, and your mind made it manifest,” he said, “This is by design, it’s meant to help you compartmentalize your thoughts and memories.”

“You called it an artificial memory palace,” Jessica said. She raised a curious eyebrow, “like Sherlock Holmes and his ‘attic’ then? A method of loci?”  
  
“Indeed Jessica, well-done,” Charles said and smiled again, “The original intent of what this is - what _I _am, here - was part of a trauma-reducing treatment to help with post-traumatic stress and also different forms of mind control. A memory journey of sorts, to rebuild the mind for some, or simply protect it for others.”  
  
Jessica thought for a moment, “I remember Jessica Jones saying something about this, about one of the X-men helping her, during a particular,” Jessica mulled the words over carefully, “...difficult time for her. For all of us.”  
  
Old San Francisco disappeared in a fog-like mist, only to have perceptible reality coalesce back again in the form of a dimly lit dilapidated office, a bit of Hell's Kitchen’s scenery poking in from over-mended windows with broken blinds. The figure of a woman, cloaked in a strange unearthly and omnipresent shadow, sat in a corner next to a half-consumed bottle of nondescript alcohol.  
  
It wasn’t a distinct image, more like the shadow of a person, and from that vague shape bled a black and violet colored miasma that pooled in the floor and crept up the nearby walls. It was a vile, horrible thing to behold. Jessica stood there next to Xavier and watched the figure as it’s arm reached down to take the bottle, take a drink, then place it back down again with a hearty _thump_ against the stained floor.  
  
“The mind is the architect of this place, and that means the imagination as well. This is how your subconscious views this moment in time,” Charles explained. “I do not recognize your friend or her name, but I suspect if it was not I, it must have been Jean Grey who offered a similar solution to her. I’ve been teaching Jean all I know, and we were beginning experimental trials in this kind of mind-healing, mnemonic triggers and other defensive arts when I created this fragment of myself for you and Carol. Did it ultimately help?”  
  
“Yes. Yes it did,” Jessica said quickly as she averted her eyes before having to look upon the monstrosity of darkness and despair any further, “Please, make this go away.”  
  
As soon as she said it, the setting blended back into the stark nothingness of the beginning.  
  
“You are the master of this space, Jessica, but I’m afraid I must ask you to focus, lest you become lost in it. I was not prepared to communicate with you in this way, as my presence here was more precautionary,” he said. “Tell me, I’m sure you remember when Carol Danvers was injured, and you brought her condition to our attention?”

“The X-Men?”  
  
He nodded, “Just so.”  
  
Suddenly the room melted away again and they were in a hospital room, a cup of coffee resting on a side-table adjacent to a sleeping Carol Danvers, steam still rising above the horizon of the chipped ceramic lip. Jessica reached for it and took a sip. It was awful, just like the original. _Amazingly accurate, even down to the hospital food_.  
  
They were the only two in the room, the lights were dim, and all that could be heard was the shallow breathing of the woman beside them, and the beeping of various machines tasked with keeping her alive and monitoring her condition. It was right before Bree showed up with Carol’s military records after they pulled her prints, just a few moments after she initially had her admitted to the emergency room and they booked her in this room.  
  
The stillness is what she remembered most, and it was rendered perfectly here. The infinite quiet that drowned out all the questions that dogged her steps as she contemplated the identity and fate of the woman she rescued from certain death. She looked over to Carol and was taken aback by how _different_ she appeared, even though in a holistic sense she hadn’t aged a day.  
  
“My Jane Doe,” Jessica said somewhat whimsically, resting her hand against Carol’s cheek before running it softly through the wavy hairstyle she once sported. Her fingers left the fringes of her errant strands and rested upon her shoulders before letting go and stepping back. Amazing. If felt so real. She glanced back at Xavier, “But why me? What does this have to do with Carol?”

“Why we are here unfortunately has everything to do with Carol,” he replied, his face unchanging in it’s demeanor though the tone of the words grew dark, “When you selflessly volunteered yourself to act as a conduit to understand and process what happened to Carol, you also acted as a mental bulwark in the process of fundamentally rebuilding who she was. Such an act, while gallant, posed certain risks to you both.”  
  
“But I never lost my memory, all I did was see things through her eyes to help rebuild what happened and put some of the pieces back together..”  
  
“That simple gesture was enough, Jessica. You bore witness to events that were not your own. You briefly shared a consciousness. Both of you were marked by the experience, and I was unsure how it would affect your minds in the long-term. Granted, I suspected you would be fine, but I decided to implant these shards of my...mindscape, for lack of a better term, inside you both. Mostly as a measure to maintain vigilance should something impact the stability of either of your brain-states.”  
  
“Alright, so what has happened to me? Why am I _here_, Charles?” Jessica asked, looking over at the comatose facsimile of Carol under the blankets as the ghosts of medical personnel and police officers milled back and forth in the hallway outside. “I feel fine. More than fine, really.”  
  
“You are correct. You’re fine, thankfully. It’s not what’s happening to you that caused me to reach out, it’s what I fear is happening to Carol,” he said, and Jessica’s heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the checkerboard-tiled floor beneath her feet became a little less tangible, less stable. “Do you still see her regularly?”  
  
The question was like a gunshot. It tore away at the corners of the hospital setting and this time she was sitting on a bench in front of Marie Danvers’ grave, overlooking the Atlantic, the sunset at her back reflected in the waves. Xavier’s chair made a soft mechanical whirring sound as he pulled up beside her. He glanced around with a casual benign curiosity as he examined the surroundings of this conjured memory space, particularly the grave and the summer home lurking beyond. Finally, he settled his gaze upon the shining waters as well.  
  
Most strikingly, she found herself back in her new suit. Not the civilian attire she was wearing when this memory was first made the day before.  
  
_Man I don’t even want to unpack what that implies._  
  
“Ms. Drew?”  
  
Jessica nodded, staring off into the waves, “You could say that we’ve seen each other recently, and often.”  
  
He smiled, “It is good to know that your bond is still as strong as ever”  
  
_Putting it mildly_.  
  
“She’s always been important to me,” she said instead, turning to him.  
  
“It is fortuitous then that I am here, for I share a connection, a bond of sorts, with other iterations of myself, especially when they are in proximity to one another,” he said, before suddenly saying, “To clarify, I am only aware of myself and my counterpart inside Carol’s body. What I may have been up to since then, I cannot vouch for. But that is, indeed, why you are here talking to me. I have revived this avatar of myself, and the loci here inside your consciousness, from dormancy and communicated with you during your slumber because I have lost _contact_ with myself.”  
  
She cocked her head to the side, “What are you saying exactly, Charles?”  
  
He paused for a minute, clearly choosing words carefully, “I cannot say for certain what is happening to Carol. It could be completely unconnected to the work we did to bring her back to herself all those years ago. Or it may not. Either way, this is the first time that something seems amiss. I _would not be here_ if something wasn’t, Jessica. You must understand that as well. Have you noticed Carol acting differently at all lately?”  
  
_Uhh…  
_  
Jessica stared at him blankly, “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific, Professor.”  
  
“Has her mood changed, or has she shown a propensity towards ennui?” he said in example.  
  
Images of the previous night flashed before her eyes, and she tried to focus on the waves in a panic in case those memories would have become the next location on the wild trip so far, “No... no...in fact the opposite. We’re in high spirits.”  
  
It was then that Jessica noticed that her soreness was gone. She smiled to herself. _One thing this mind-scape has going for it, no residual effects of getting absolutely wrecked by my BFF in the sack. At least until I wake up, I suppose._  
  
“Hmm,” he said, resting his chin on his hands, “Has she developed any kind of loss of coordination or motor skill?”  
  
“Not that I can tell, though she’s gotten a dizzy spell once or twice, she’s told me, but they seemed more stress-related.”  
  
“Alright, one final question: has she developed any kind of absent-mindedness, or had trouble focusing, or perhaps is forgetting or misplacing things - things were commonly known to her, especially mundane tasks or things rooted in memorization?”  
  
“No, not-” and suddenly Jessica recalled a few things immediately. She turned to Xavier with a concerned look, “Driving directions. Misplaced keys. That kind of thing. She never does that, but she’s done it a few times, and it distresses her greatly. It should. She never forgets anything like that.”  
  
“Eureka,” he said and snapped his fingers. He got up and walked around. She recoiled in absolutely surprise, jumping up and hiding slightly behind the bench in an instinct-spider crouch.  
  
“Woah woah woah!”  
  
He laughed, “I am so sorry, I forgot that you’re not used to working in abstract spaces. Jessica none of this is _real_, and as the invoker of this space I have a degree of autonomy. If you don’t mind, I'll take the opportunity to stroll as I think. It honestly helps. I miss it.”  
  
She stood back up slowly, “Uh sure, knock yourself out.”

“Excellent.”  
  
The world melted away into a pleasant-enough looking gardenscape, and Jessica found herself not immediately recognizing the connotation. Then she saw some children, a few with different color skin or eyes, or body shape, running down a path laughing, backpacks banging against their backs with every step.  
  
“We’re at the school.”  
  
He looked up, “Hm? Yes. This memory is one of mine. The _only_ one I can conjure on my own initiative here, so I hope you do not mind this minor indulgence as well. It helps me concentrate. I had a...particular fondness for this spot. This moment, in point of fact.”  
  
Jessica looked past him and down farther into the garden, near a walking path. There, at a small bench, she saw the back a woman with a tweed hat reading a book on an old bespoke oak bench, humming to herself. The woman never turned around. The humming seemed to repeat itself slightly, like a record that could only go so far.  
  
Jessica decided not to pry. She turned back to Xavier and gave him a bright grin.  
  
“I don’t mind at all.”  
  
He nodded, “Thank you.”  
  
He then seemed to produce a book from nowhere and began to read it, “Well, from what I can gather from my own recollections, this kind of degradation means that it is most likely _not_ caused by anything we did. But rather, our efforts are being unraveled by some kind of unforeseen element. A catalyst that we could not have predicted. Has anything unexpected happened of late to either one of you? Particularly her?”  
  
“Yes,” Jessica said. “I had a child within the last few years, and it has come to our attention that, somehow, Carol is the other parent.”  
  
“Oh,” he replied, eyes wide as saucers as he processed that, “I see. Continue?”  
  
“Well, recently Gerry, Gerald - _our _son - has started spontaneously manifesting several of Carol’s powers and abilities where once he only shown an aptitude in mine,” Jessica explained. “What little we’ve learned is that my pregnancy was triggered by my attempts at getting pregnant on my own, with assisted medical care. Carol’s DNA was somehow already there, most likely for years, and took over the fertilized...egg.”  
  
“I wish Hank was here, he’s more of the wild conjecture sort, and is oftentimes correct,” Xavier said. “No matter, this is definitely worth exploring, because her degradation seems inexorably tied to this moment in your child’s shift of powers. They must be related, even if that’s a supposition at this juncture. The coincidence is too strong.”  
  
“What do we do next?”  
  
Xavier snapped the book shut and held it behind his back, his look growing more solemn. The woman in the back suddenly stopped humming, thought she continued to be completely engrossed in whatever she was reading. Charles looked back at her, then returned to Jessica with what almost looked like a forlorn expression, “I’m afraid it is not what _we_ must do, but what _you_ must do next, Jessica, for Carol’s sake, if not your own.”  
  
“I don’t understand,” Jessica said, and suddenly noticed that the world of the gardenscape was starting to fade slowly, losing his vibrance of color as a veneer of greyish hue fell across the fabric of reality.  
  
“Charles?” the woman at the bench said with a thick Scottish accent, “I believe it’s time to come back, now.”  
  
The woman then rose, closed her book, and turned around to look at him expectantly. Jessica tried to see her face, but everything was becoming opaque and muddled. Xavier walked up to Jessica and took both of her hands, and as she blinked, he was back in his wheelchair staring up at her.  
  
“That was my cue call. A mnemonic device trigger to end the existence of this simulacrum. It was only designed to work once, in the event of dire circumstances,” he explained. “I did not want to leave any residual elements in your consciousness once the message was delivered, and the message is this: _something_ is eating away at the work we did on Carol’s mind. She will begin to forget more, I wager, and will possibly also lose elements of her long-term memory and the emotions attached to them, just like before.”  
  
He squeezed her hands, “It’s tied to Gerry. Go back to him. There’s something about your pregnancy, the night you rescued Carol, and something that has brought the consequences of the actions of that night back to us all. I cannot underscore this enough: _it all goes back to the bridge_, Jessica.”  
  
“Just one last question, Professor, please.”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
She looked him dead in the eyes, “...when you made these..._shards _of yourself to watch over us both...these kind of things don’t grow back, do they? You surrendered a part of your mind - your most precious asset - however small a piece, to protect Carol and I. Such a cost…why?”  
  
“What I have done is something men and women like you pay every day, sacrificing pieces of yourselves over time to protect us all. Sometimes it is blood. Sometimes it is flesh. Sometimes you suffer wounds that no one sees,” he said, pointing a finger at her heart. “It is what my X-Men do, despite the prejudice of others. Despite the hate and mistrust.”

The memory loop of students running across the garden played through again, and they both watched the children and teenagers pass by on their way to class. Xavier never took his eyes from the kids this time, nor Jessica, and together in the distance she saw Scott Summers open the door for them with a smile on his face.

“There’s an intrinsic elemental nature to goodness, Ms. Drew. We so often label people as doomed by their genes. Bad seeds. But it is our deeds that define us, not how we were made, nor where we came from. Not who our parents were, but instead the kind of parents we could ourselves be. Our _deeds_. That is all that matters in the end.”

He fixed his eyes upon her, “I think you, of all people, would appreciate our perspective, and agree with that assessment.”  
  
She remained silent and nodded. He smiled.

“Then you already have your answer.”

As he finished, light bloomed everywhere. It was like a supernova went off, and she could barely see anything but Xavier and herself, lost in a field of pure limitless white. It was blinding.  
  
“I must go, and I am sorry that our time was brief, these artificial loci interventions were meant to be incidental, not instructive,” he said, “I know that it was also harrowing, so I will leave you with this final gift before you wake - a vision of the future, if you will.”

The world began to reconstitute itself slowly, “A _possible_ future perhaps, if only in your mind, and a bit from Carol’s. I compiled it together from the last few moments I had in connection to her subconscious.”

“What will it be?” Jessica asked, trying to make sense to the new vision poking through the mists.

“I do not know what you will see, but it is what you both desire most. Possibly something you didn’t even know you wanted. It will be most likely either bittersweet or hyperbolic, for what dreams may come are not either of those things? But if you curtail your cynicism, you may learn something from it, for it is truly what makes you happy. Both of you. Hopefully it will one day transpire beyond the realms of your subconscious desire.”  
  
“You’re lying,” she said matter-of-factly.  
  
He gave her a bemused look of surprise, “I beg your pardon?”  
  
“You know what I’m about to see, this final vision, don’t you? You saw everything else my mind conjured up. You must have some idea of what I am about to see, and you’re being overtly coy about it.”  
  
“I have absolutely no idea what you mean,” he replied, and lifted a single eyebrow. “Give Ms. Danvers my regards when you see her.”  
  
Before she could reply, he let go of her hands like he was releasing a paper boat on the water, and she floated away from him across the vast bright nothingness. He waved once, and was no more.  
  
Suddenly she bumped up against something solid. It was a car parked on a small bi-way. The world materialized around her again, though she did not know exactly where or when she was. It was definitely a small but well-manicured space, surrounded by trees and rolling mountains. The setting was idyllic, though considering this was the literal epitome of personal fantasy, not altogether unexpected. Nevertheless, she found herself captivated by the surroundings.  
  
She could hear organ music playing from nearby. She turned and saw a small chapel, spire reaching into the sky. Near the front entrance were men and women in United States Air Force dress blues side by side with Alpha Flight officers and cadets in similar ceremonial attire, blades drawn to a peak. Near the end, assembled next to a waiting black sedan, were a veritable cornucopia of heroes and associations of their mutual lives, from New York locals to intergalactic extraterrestrials. Amongst the throng of heroes she could see a younger pre-teen boy with blond hair double-fisting bags of rice and confetti. She held her breath and tried to walk further, but could only get this close.  
  
“Gerry…”  
  
Bells rang. The door swung open, and two figures strode through the raised blades, and it was then that she saw herself and Carol, arms locked, smiling and laughing. Jennifer, in justice of the peace robes, stood framed in the entrance smiling at their backs. Confetti was thrown, well-wishing was shouted, and a flight of F-16s roared overhead with Alpha Flight fighter intermixed in an elaborate echelon formation. They bled white contrails of smoke as they departed, peeling off in various directions to create an elaborate temporary design within the sky.  
  
Suddenly two of the Alpha Flight and Air Force officers lowered their blades, blocking their path. Jessica couldn’t make out what was said, but she saw herself laugh and kiss Carol, and the blades were raised again as they ran to the car with the phrase _Just Married_ written on its back. They entered, the car took off, and Jessica watched it go with a mixture of exultation and self-doubt.  
  
“Was any of it real?” she said out loud. Remarkably, a nearby voice responded.

  
  
\---

  
  
“Of course it was real,” the voice said back, as the vision faded away into the gentle light of early morning, a broken bed on a remarkably resilient mattress, and a pair of sky blue eyes that set her soul aloft. “But of course, the real question is, was it good?”

“Pinch me,” Jessica said. Carol obliged. It hurt, but in a good way.  
  
“Guess I’m not dreaming,” she said.  
  
Carol shook her head and grinned like an idiot, “Nope.”

_In more ways than one, I suppose_, Jessica thought ruefully as she rubbed at her eyes and yawned.  
  
Carol sat up on her elbow to talk to her, “You were talking in your sleep, but I couldn’t make any of it out, just barely above a whisper, and some mumbling, who were you talking to?”  
  
Jessica looked at her with a bit of self-conscious doubt before saying, “Would you believe me if I told you Charles Xavier?”  
  
“Oh yeah, what about?”  
  
“You.”  
  
Jessica’s delivery was dead-pan. Carol’s smile wavered a bit, “Wait _really_?”  
  
Jessica nodded, “I think this may take a while to explain. Breakfast?”  
  
“Definitely, there’s a cafe down the road, let’s do this properly, I need to regain my strength,” Carol said with a wink as she jumped up and yawned, scratching at her midsection. Then her face went a bit serious, almost childlike in its reticence to ask again, as she looked down at Jessica, “But...it _was_ good right?”

Jessica turned over and looked up at Carol as a ray of light from the rising sun peeked through the window and grazed the surface of her abs, illuminating her taut, well-toned frame. She rose slightly, onto her knees, and from that position kissed her way up Carol’s leg, and with her tongue doted attention back inside her with slow, steady applications of affection. As she did so, she wrapped her arms around Carol’s stomach, running her hands down Carol’s back and over her butt. Her eyes all the time set upwards towards Carol’s face.  
  
Carol’s eyes connected with Jessica’s during all of it, which almost instantly set her over the edge. Her knees buckled a bit and managed to mutter out, “Okay, hah! Alright, I’ll take that as y-y-es,” before collapsing back onto the mattress, and their limbs entwined once again.  
  
A short while later, they were staring back at the ceiling again together, a mess of legs and arms. Carol, with the most relaxed look of satisfaction that Jessica had ever seen, seemed unable to fully move her limbs. Instead she chose to just move her head to look at Jessica, “Not to seem, well, single-minded but…”  
  
Jessica rolled her eyes, “Oh my _god_, you and your _stomach_.”  
  
“Weren’t you the one whose stomach _literally_ gurgled when a food-related word came up in conversation?”  
  
Jessica crossed her arms.  
  
“Maybe, but at least I was fully clothed when I made my wishes known."  
  
Carol smiled sweetly and kissed up her arm in an obvious bid to carry favor, “Yeah, yeah I know, but….breakfast?”  
  
Jessica sighed and smiled, “Yes! Breakfast. I think we earned it for real this time, let’s make ourselves presentable and go.”  
  
With confirmation of potential fried meats and flapjacks soundly secured, Carol seemed to find renewed vigor at the prospect of eating both. She jumped back up and patted her butt like a drum as she started to hum a tune, then stopped dead in her tracks, “Oh, right.”  
  
“What’s wrong?” Jessica inquired with a concerned glance, “Did you just remember that they may be closed or something?”  
  
Carol looked at her and scratched her head, “No, nothing like that. I just remembered that there’s only one shower in the house. Want to go first?”  
  
Jessica looked at Carol, looked down at her heavily post-sexed naked body, looked at Carol’s body, then looked back at Carol before raising an eyebrow.  
  
“Oh. Right.”  
  
After Carol discovered another perk of sleeping together, namely the efficiency and fun of a shared shower, they donned freshly cleaned duds before Carol carried them both the short distance to the parking lot of the greasy spoon in question.  
  
“I forgot how nice this was for traveling short distances,” Jessica said.  
  
“Fly the friendly skies of Danvers Air anytime you want,” Carol said with a mock salute after they touched down.  
  
“Good thing I get a discount because I’m sleeping with the owner now.”

“You’re not wrong,” Carol with a playful swat at Jess' butt as they went inside.  
  
Carol quickly ordered a plate heaped with flapjacks. Jessica the same, except adorned with thick buttery waffles. They each stared at each other’s place for a moment, their eyes met, and without saying a word they swapped plates.  
  
“We were meant for each other,” Carol said in between aggressive bites of waffle.  
  
“If only we knew this sooner,” Jessica agreed.  
  
Over the course of several calories Jessica relayed her journey through her mindscape with Charles Xavier. The shifting mindscapes. Why he was there to begin with. Finally, she ended with the urgent warning. She left out the last part. She wasn’t sure what to do with _that_ bit yet.  
  
Carol sat enraptured, chewing away and nodding at appropriate moments, until finally at the end she interjected, “Okay so long story short, we need to get back, then?”

Jessica nodded, “If we are to believe the strange Professor X ghost in my brain, yes.”

Carol grunted and absent-mindedly tapped her lips with the back-end of a fork, “And my brain, too, or at least it was until...my condition, apparently, started flaring up. Even with Tony crunching the numbers, it seems our future lies in the past, or some such cryptic nonsense that we’ll need to explore further with greater tools at our disposal.”

“Do you believe it-him-me, I guess?” Jessica inquired.

Carol sighed and took a swing of coffee before replying, cradling the cup, “I do. Something is wrong. Jess, I should have told you sooner, but I thought it may have just been stress.”

“What?” Jessica asked warily.

Looking away with a hint of chagrin, Carol opened up, “I _may_ have had some kind of attack when I was flying over Jennifer’s house, like a punch to the gut. I haven't felt anything like that before. It was powerful and electric, like getting shocked by one of your blasts at full tilt.”

“Carol!”

Carol flinched, “I know, I know, I'm sorry Babe. I should have told you sooner.”

Jessica pointed at her with a butter knife, “You're _goddamn right _you should have told me sooner. I loved you to death before…” she spun her knife around in circles, “...all of this. Now, I _own _your ass, woman, and you tell me everything going forward, got it?”

“Yeah,” Carol said softly. “Though I think last night I owned your ass a bit too.”

“With _permission_,” Jessica replied with a slightly lifted chin, but winked.

Carol chuckled and sat forward to run her hand through Jessica’s hair before leaning in to kiss her, “Fair point, but seriously, I’ll let you know if it happens again.”  
  
Jessica lingered on the kiss, and her tongue chased after Carol a bit after they pulled away. She opened her eyes dreamily, but just as quickly they grew serious again.  
  
“I mean it, Carol. I don’t even care if it’s a case of the sniffles, you tell me _everything_, are we clear?”  
  
“Crystal clear, ma’am,” she replied with military precision. “You know you really scare me with how quickly you shift gears, sometimes.”  
  
“Shut up. You always liked that about me.”  
  
Carol rested her head in her hands and sort of stared at Jessica with a lopsided expression and a silly grin, “Yeah, true.”

“I’m glad we agree, then,” Jessica said with a nod, then paused, “Wait. Was this our first fight?”

Carol blinked, “Technically? All I did was roll over and show my belly to you immediately, though.”  
  
“Yeah, I think I’m going to like our new relationship dynamic,” Jessica said with a coy grin.  
  
Carol smirked back, “We’ll see about that.”

They stared at each other for a minute and you could cut the air with a knife and fork. Jessica lifted her foot up under the table and ran it up and down Carol’s leg. Carol looked into Jessica’s eyes and bit her lip. Things got a little bit warmer, too, and not just metaphorically. Jessica couldn’t help herself and started to giggle.  
  
“...what’s so funny?” Carol said self-consciously.  
  
“Wait wait _wait,_ are you so turned on right now that you’re actually giving off excess heat with your powers unintentionally?”  
  
Carol turned bright red, “...maybe.”

Shrugging, Jessica replied with a somewhat semi-serious air, “Well, if it _was _our first fight, _technically_, I suppose we have time to make up before we have to head out.”  
  
Carol looked around for a waiter or waitress, snapping her fingers rapidly, “Check please.”  
  
Jessica laughed as she shook her head, “Absolutely hopeless.”

As soon as they were in the parking lot Carol lifted Jessica up and they flew back the short distance of the house, Jessica anchored in Carol’s arms. The sun was warm on their faces and mitigated any other pressing chill. The house was soon below them. Jessica looked up and smiled, and Carol did the same looking back at her.  
  
“We’ve come a long way from an embarrassing wendigo fire.”  
  
“‘Apology accepted.’”  
  
“Whatever, goofball.”  
  
They landed and headed for the door, but not before Jessica’s phone began to ring. She glanced down at the Caller ID_._ As the approached the door she answered, “Hey Tony, we were just about to contact you after taking care of…” Carol looked at her and winked, “...business. But we are on our way back. I have to share some interesting information that we got from the X-Men, sort of? But I think it may be better explained and believed in person.”  
  
“Sounds good,” Tony said, “But I’m afraid I also have a lot of strange information that must be relayed in person, but I think I should probably probably cut to the chase on the first half of it, if you don’t mind. Can you put me on speaker phone and get Carol a bit closer?”  
  
“Sure hold on,” Jessica said and motioned Carol over. They both stood together on the front porch as dawn reach its midstage. “Go ahead.”  
  
“Alright,” Tony said. “We have someone here that wants to talk to you, but I want to stress this is someone who normally shoots firsts from the shadows and asks questions later. I think you’ll recognize her immediately. She turned herself in to us as a condition of getting this one call.”  
  
“Who is it?”  
  
“You’ll see,” Tony said with a bit of exhaustion to his voice. “It’s not even worth introducing her, she’s like an evil Mary Poppins, you’ll get both barrels of villain exposition before I even tried to cliff notes the whole thing. Here goes. Moira, transfer audio to Avengers Interrogation Room Alpha-1, Priority Security Control, please. I want to pull the plug at a moment’s notice if I need to.”  
  
“Right away, Tony,” the A.I. replied, and there was a clicking sound as the line switched over.  
  
“Okay we’re good on this end,” Tony said. “Have at it, you got a minute to make your pitch.”  
  
“I only need a few seconds. Hello, Car-Ell,” said Minn-Nerva, “I think you should come back right away. Your friends all agree that this is most likely a story you’ll be _dying_ to hear. Especially if you value the lives of others, including your son.”  
  
“Gerry!” Jessica yelled at the phone, “What have you done-”  
  
“He’s fine, he’s with us, Jessica,” Tony immediately chimed back in, “Jennifer brought him in when they brought your Kree friend, here. I’m taking back control of audio from Cruella de Vil here, but essentially what she’s told us seems to indicate that Gerry’s condition has increased in potency tenfold over the last several hours. Not only is he manifesting Carol’s abilities, but he’s getting hotter, and the temporary measures I’ve put in place don’t seem to be mitigating the effects as well - he’s building a tolerance.”  
  
“What else did she say?” Carol asked.  
  
“Not a peep. She says she won’t say anything more until you’re here at HQ, face-to-face,” Tony said.  
  
Jessica turned to Carol with a panicked look, “We have to get back, right _now_.”  
  
Carol nodded, held her close, and looked her in the eyes, “We can leave everything here. Suit up. I’ll fly us.”

\---

  
  
Jennifer, Tony, Carol, and the two Jessica’s found themselves together on a different floor of Avengers HQ, behind a few dozen blast doors, gathered around a small conference area adjacent to the interrogation rooms and detention hall.  
  
“To borrow a phrase, I’m glad we’re all assembled,” Tony said to the gathered group. “I took the liberty of informing some of the others, who are either on assignment or offworld at the moment. Most are returning as quickly as the can, but for now, it’s us. Cap - the other Cap - recommended that we keep this one ‘in the family’ until we know a bit more, so it’s just us chickens until the roosters come home.”  
  
“You gift of extended barnyard metaphor is astounding,” Jennifer said.. “But now that Carol is here, the ugly question needs to be raised: do we give Minn-Nerva what she wants?”  
  
Tony shrugged, “I think we have to, I’m not prepared to _torture _it out of her. Obviously, and what she’s saying about Gerry’s condition is legit. We’ll have to let Jessica know what we find when she gets back from retrieving a few of Gerry’s things from home.”  
  
Carol, now fully kitted in her Captain Marvel attire, paced back and forth, her sash lightly billowing like a nervous tail behind her. She looked up, hand on chin in contemplation, while gesturing with the other while she spoke, “I have to go in there, and hear her out. The likelihood this is some kind of trap is there but considering where we are, I can think of a situation with les precautionary measures in place.”  
  
Tony gestured towards a large, near-vault-like door with a sophisticated locking mechanism, “She’s in there, Carol, you can have at it. We’ll be monitoring from here. I was expecting her to demand some kind of isolation/privacy element, but she surprisingly deferred. She actually _wants us _to hear this.”  
  
Jennifer nodded, “Which both leads credence to her sincerity but also lends a profound ominousness to the entire affair,” she shook her head slowly, “I don’t like it.”  
  
Jones shivered a bit next to Jennifer, but in typical fashion looked more pissed off than afraid, “This is why I stay out of this nonsense, freaks me out. I know it’s why Drew decided to get out too. Too much coo-coo for cocoa puffs people with world-ending power, intelligence, or resources at their fingertips.”  
  
Carol walked over to her and put her hand on Jones’ shoulder, “Yet here you are. Thank you.”  
  
Jones shrugged and tried to gruffly rebuff the compliment, but she stood a bit taller at the praise despite trying to hide it, “Yeah well, no big deal. Just don’t get soft on me, Danvers, you’re one of the few hardasses left I look up to.”  
  
“I’ll keep that in mind, tough guy,” Carol said, then turned to Tony, “I’m ready.”  
  
He nodded, pushed a button, and the doors opened. She walked down the long metal corridor, her footfalls echoing with each step. What stood out the most while she held her breath in anticipation was the absolute silence of the space. A natural element of a detainment area perhaps, but the isolating nature of it just emphasized the tension in the air as she rounded the corner, opened another door, and sat down on the opposite side of the table from the Kree woman before her.  
  
Minn-Nerva’s hands were both bound _and_ cuffed to the center of the table, and Carol had no doubt she reveled in the focus put upon her potential threat or danger level by the act. They sized each other up for a moment before Carol finally had enough of the dramatic flair permeating the room.  
  
“Talk.”  
  
“Right down to business, that’s the Carol I know. From what I’ve seen her file, you take after your mother in that way - a sign of a good Kree Commando and Commander,” Minn-Nerva said with a sneer-infused smile. “I’ve been looking forward to talking to you, Car-Ell.”  
  
“My name,” Carol replied coolly, “Is Carol.”  
  
“Ugh, but it is such an ugly, _plebeian_ thing, your _human_ name,” Minn-Nerva replied, “But I relent, Carol, you win. We have much to discuss, you and I.”  
  
“So discuss.”  
  
Minn-Nerva leaned in, “I suppose you’re wondering about Gerry, your son. Yes, well, this is all your mother’s fault really.”  
  
“You say her name without reason, and I’ll blow a hole through you,” Carol said through gritted teeth, her hands glowing slightly in sympathetic response.  
  
Minn-Nerva slammed the desk with her bound hands, “Yes! That fire, that passion and fury, those are the indicators of a true Kree! Oh, believe me I have _reason_ to mention Mari-Ell, Carol, for she should have told you about your heritage long ago. What it _m_eans to be a Kree warrior. It’s more than a title, my dear, it is a mantle. It is a privilege, an honor and responsibility to carry with you all of your days. For with the title comes duty, yes, but also gifts.”  
  
“Gifts?”  
  
“Indeed, she replied, “Though perhaps not in the connotation you may be thinking. The most important gifts are genetic, of course. Speed. Power, like yours. Endurance. Ability. But also the mark. They are each marked, you see, and that means quite a bit. With those bestowed there are things also asked in return, for the mantle is passed on should be _allowed_ to procreate.”  
  
Carol was astounded by how animated the other woman was. It was also off-putting, for she couldn’t be sure where her wit and intelligence began and her perceptible instability ended.  
  
“So what exactly are you inferring?” Carol asked carefully, still balancing out her tone and line of inquiry between careful and overt, “That I inherited something I’m not aware of from my mother?”  
  
“Yes, exactly that. The highest of the Kree order of warriors are like machines, after a fashion. They are autonomous but also bound by duty to execute their orders without question. You set them upon a task and they complete it, or die trying. Obedience. Deference. Your mother violated her oath when she went absent without leave, and on top of it she created _offspring_ \- passing along a sacred vow without even attempting to convey its significance to the next generation, whether the creation of issue was authorized or not.”  
  
Carol just stared, waiting for the big reveal that was no doubt coming. Minn-Nerva continued, “But I digress. When a Kree warrior of her station dies, it is a tragic loss of knowledge and experience. Also, valuable intelligence if their mission was clandestine and involved subterfuge. Ergo, they carry within them an artificially created organ in their midsection that essentially copies the core elements of their essence - their skills, traits, abilities, knowledge, experience and memory.”  
  
Carol mused for a moment before making an observation, “So like a ‘black box,’ but for a person.”  
  
“Your avionics experience does you credit. While the analogy is not entirely accurate, it fits for the purposes of what I’m attempting to convey. In the event of the death of the warrior, the genetic module which is located within their internal organ structure is removed, cataloged, the personality areas wiped, and the critical components integrated into a new host that maintains their own sense of self. Otherwise we would have warriors running around with split personalities.”  
  
Carol squinted in confusion, “So you can pass on memories, experiences, and abilities, great. So my mother passed on this special organ on to me through her bloodline. But what does this have to do with Gerry?”  
  
Minn-Nerva looked surprised, “Have you honestly not connected the dots? The _bridge_, Carol.”  
  
“What bridge?”  
  
The blue-skinned woman looked at her and sighed, “What other bridge is there, really?”  
  
It hit Carol like a ton of bricks. Her eyes opened up as she a sharp intake of breath.  
  
“Jessica.”

Minn-Nerva nodded again and became far more animated, “Yes, something happened there, between the two of you, on the night ‘Spider-Woman’ rescued you. I don’t know what it was, but there was a sharing of energy, or something jump started your self-described ‘black box’ protocols, for lack of a better term. From what little I’ve been able to gleam on the event, she saved your life, as you were already in life-threatening condition. So it may have been something that _augmented_ it, but I think whatever the catalyst was, it was the moment it transferred it’s data storage to her.”  
  
Carol raised her hands up, “Hold on. This is a lot to unpack. I wasn’t even _conscious_ for most of that night. How could I have done any of this on my own recognizance?”  
  
Minn-Nerva laughed, “You probably didn’t. It was probably autonomous. That’s intentional because these are meant to activate in the event of potential death. Also, if I knew that do you think I would be here talking to you? No, I’d be replicating the process and trying to save our race, something you should care about too if you weren’t so ashamed of it.”  
  
“That’s not true….” Carol said.  
  
“Is it? Well, I find that hard to believe, considering you buried that information, and I didn’t find out about it till you inadvertently triggered that old assassination monitoring station in orbit,” she said, jostling her bound hands about as she spoke. “But I’m not here to trade barbs or accuse you of anything - justified or not, Carol. I came here to make a deal.”  
  
“What kind of deal?”  
  
“I don’t know what you did to transfer your data to another host, and how that information and genetic material stayed dormant inside your friend. Furthermore, I don’t know_ how_ it overrode the human fertilization process. I think it has something to do with you being half-human and half-Kree. When that catalytic even transpired that night in San Francisco, your human genetics forged a link between you and her. That’s a lot of unknowns, Carol, but you can help me make those unknowns known.”  
  
“How?”  
  
Minn-Nerva leaned back, “By surrendering yourself to me. Completely and without condition.”  
  
Carol blinked in surprise, “Excuse me?”  
  
“You agree to come to my lab that is cloaked and in orbit around this planet, and I will use my instruments to deactivate what is currently happening to Gerry. You come alone with him, and I’ll allow Jessica to come to as a measure of good faith. He’s your son Carol, and Jessica’s too. I know he’s important, but he’s even more important to the survival of the Kree. If I can replicate what you did, whatever you did, we can rebuild. I can share knowledge and experience with new hosts bodies - within reason of course. What your mother had was rare enough. There are precious few surviving biological repositories of such experience that survived our current turmoil.”  
  
“So you’re using a child, our child, as a bargaining chip,” Carol said, folding her arms. “No deal.”  
  
“What’s happening to him will continue to accelerate until some termination point. What he inherited should have been implanted in a body that was able to accept it - a trained matured adult. His metabolism will eventually be overwhelmed by it, and augmented by your latent energy and powers, I suspect it won’t be a pretty sight for anyone when it does.”  
  
“What do you_ want_ with me?” Carol asked.  
  
“Once I cure Gerry, he’s free to return back home with Jessica,” Minn-Nerva replied, “I’ll have everything I need from him in reversing his condition. I intend to put some of it back in _you_, to improve you even further.”  
  
“You mean make me more Kree-like,” Carol said, frowning.  
  
“To me the distinction is one and the same, but yes,” Minn-Nerva answered. “And I will also, permanently and finally, take advantage of that process to wipe your memory and start you anew.”  
  
“You’re going to_ what_?” Carol said. “You _do_ realize I have a hang-up about anything involving this. I also don’t like the idea of being held in some kind of blind control by you, either.”  
  
Minn-Nerva shook her head and her eyes went wild, her zealotry coming to the forefront as she went further into detail.  
  
“I’m going to make you the Warrior you were _born_ to be, and help me rebuild our people,” she replied as she once again rattled her bindings with a surge of passion. “I will free you from the emotional entanglements of this life - something you’ve had to snatch back over and over again, and ultimately always in a way that gave you consternation and pain in one form or another. I will _set you free_, Carol, to be the Car-Ell that fate took from you.”  
  
As she said that, she took her cuffed hands as far forward as they would go to get near Carol’s, but the latter pulled away at the touch.  
  
They stared at each other for a moment before Carol got up to walk out.  
  
Minn-Nevra spoke up as Carol entered the doorway. Carol stopped, despite her better instincts, to listen one final time.  
  
“I’m offering a cure for your son, Carol, and for you too. I know you’ve been forgetting things. That will only get worse too, until the data transfer is reversed. Whatever those mutants did to fix you, the band-aid is falling off, to use a human phrase.”  
  
“You’re bluffing.”  
  
“No, I’m not. I can do it, I know I can, because I know what to _look for_. Mr. Stark does not. He won’t find it in time... he _won’t_. No one will. I promise you that. I think it’s a fair trade, don’t you? Your life for Gerry’s. No one has to die today - just realize their true destiny. I suspect that despite the difficulty of the choice, at least some of the others would agree.”  
  
Carol paused. Then left to walk back to the conference area. The footfalls echoing around her seemed to carry even more resonance and pronounced weight than on the way in. She rested her head on a bulkhead for a moment, simply to catch her breath, before actriving the security panel that opened the door.  
  
When it did, she saw everyone pretty much where she left them. They didn’t say anything. A pall hung over them, and it seemed to suppress everything. _Then again_, Carol thought, _what more can be said?_  
  
She walked in with a grim grin, “All of you look like the worst surprise party ever.”  
  
That was when she noticed they were all looking down the hallway behind her. She turned and saw Jessica there, leaning against the wall, tears streaming down her face. Carol walked over to her.

  
“Oh god, Jess, how much of it did you hear?”  
  
Jessica offered an unconvincing smile, “Enough.”  
  
Carol got in close, hugged her, softly kissed her cheek, and began rocking her slowly in her arms, hands softly caressing Jessica’s back. She knew the others saw but she didn’t care, neither of them did anymore.  
  
“I can’t lose you,” Jessica said. “Not after all this. I _can’t_.”  
  
Carol just kept holding her in response.  
  
“I _won’t_, Carol. I won’t lose you,” Jessica said, a fist against Carol’s chest in protest.  
  
Carol looked over at Tony and Jennifer, “Where?”  
  
Tony understood immediately, “One floor down, Infirmary Alpha, Room 2.”  
  
“Come on,” Carol said, taking her by the hand, “Let’s go check on Gerry and talk.”

They walked together, hand in hand, towards the elevator and disappeared around a corner. Everyone there watched them go until they heard the elevator doors open and then shut. After a brief additional period of quiet, Jones, with a few worry lines on her forehead and hand on hip, turned to Jennifer, breaking the silence.  
  
“So they’re fucking, right?”

\---

Jessica and Carol stood side by side, looking through thick reinforced glass at Gerry sleeping away in a soft bed. An artificial “window” allowed a soft, soothing simulated midday level of light to pour into the room where he slept. The infirmary was made up to look like a child’s room, with a colorful area rug, toys, and pastel colors adorning its walls.  
  
“One of Tony’s staff told me the induced sleep to help slow down the acceleration of his condition,” Jessica said, her arms folded hard across her chest. “His temperature keeps rising. They’re venting heat and pumping in cold air, otherwise the ambient level in the room would be the equivalent of a sweltering summer day in July.”  
  
Carol wrapped her right arm around her and drew her in, side-by-side, so they could keep looking in together. Her warmth was a comfort when it felt like everything was slowly growing cold as the unfolding of events began to register. Carol sighed, laid her head on Jessica’s shoulder, and gave her a little nudge.  
  
“Hey, you.”  
  
“Hey yourself.”  
  
“You said you heard most of it.”  
  
Jessica nodded, “Yeah.”  
  
Silence reigned in the space again. Neither one of them wanted to bring it up, but the words sat there, towering over them both. The answer was unthinkable. But so was the question. Yet, all that mattered was laid out on a bed before them, in a room they couldn’t enter due to quarantine. Caught in the untenable webbing of an unwinnable choice, they cowered in the shadow of the unfathomable, until it’s inexorable weight forced them to speak.  
  
“I…”  
  
“_Don’t_, Carol,” Jessica said flatly. The period at the end of that declaration felt like a wrecking ball. But she had to press on. Carol kissed her temple lightly and tried one more time to reach out to her, even if it pained them both to do so.  
  
“Jess…”  
  
Jessica pushed her away and jutted her face out forward, her eyes wild with a torrid, terrible combination of rage and absolute misery, “I said _don’t. Say. It._ What that horrible blue-skinned bitch asked of you is _off_ the table, Danvers. The way she talked about you, like you were just a tool or some kind of _weapon_ to be used. I won’t let her have you. I won’t let her take away everything that makes you..._you_.”_  
  
_Carol stared at her and sighed, “This is for Gerry, Jess. Your son. _Our_ son. I have to do this...we have to least...see this through, and we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”  
  
Jessica was shaking, and flashed her teeth as she lashed out, “So you’re just giving up?”  
  
Carol suddenly heard Jessica’s words slowly morph into what she said to Rhodes on that phone call above Long Island. They hovered there, inside her head, like an echo of regret.  
  
_Ouch.  
  
_“This isn’t giving up...it’s accepting the cards we’ve been dealt and moving forward.”  
  
“There has to be a way. Tony will-”  
  
Carol stopped her short. “If Tony thought that he would find a way through this before something happens, he would have told us,” she said, running a hand through Jessica’s hair, then slowly and gently tracing it down her neck and looking deeply into her eyes with the most calm and sincerity she could muster. It was a good theatrical performance, in a way, for in her own mind she was also screaming against the situation as adamantly as Jessica was.  
  
Carol pointed at the glass window, “I would do anything for him. _Anything_. Not because through some chance of fate a part of me is in that kid. I would do anything for him because _you’re_ in there, too. He’s a part of you, that means he’s one of the most precious things in the world to me. If that means that I have to make a deal with the devil to save his life, that to me is like saving yours in the bargain. You know that. I refuse to let anything happen to him. Anything.”  
  
Jessica, overwhelmed, paced around as tears streamed down her face. It was not a benign, gentle thing. Her fists were balled and and she punched the floor, breaking and bending reinforced metal with the ferocity of the act.  
  
“Fuck!”  
  
Carol smiled and choked back a bit while trying to regain her composure, “Here we were thinking that we’d give this kid a chance a normal life, remember that?”  
  
Jessica smiled through bitter tears, “Yeah. Who am I kidding? Myself, I guess.”  
  
Carol shook her head, “No, you do _not_ get to say or think that. You’re a _good mother_, Jess. Look at me.”  
  
Jessica did so while trying to keep herself together.  
  
“You’re a _good mom_,” Carol said. “He’s had a good life. He’s a smiling little guy that’s only known love. Love from you. Love from a large green-skinned lady who gives him piggy-back rides. Love from a bunch of different crazy aunts and uncles that live in space, possess the power of gods, or keep watch just around the corner.”

Carol gestured at the window.

“That remarkable little life has known care and affection from two washed-up soldiers in odd suits who have a strange penitent for stars on their chests, and an ex-Soviet assassin spy. It goes on and on. This kid was born into a family of _wonders_…”  
  
“...Marvels,” Jessica corrected with a half-hearted smile, looking at Carol with grief and love.  
  
“...and yet, the most amazing thing we all truly know about him is that he’s a normal, happy boy,” Carol finished. “Even with his powers. Even with the dangers of being special. He’s a normal kid. That’s because of _you_, and no one else.”  
  
Jessica couldn’t keep herself from crying further, the tears pouring forth and down her face with an unrestrained earnestness that betrayed how much the words hit true, and meant something.  
  
“I love you _so much_,” Jessica said.

Carol ran her hands up and down Jessica’s arms as she spoke softly next to her ear, “Yeah, well, to quote someone very special to me, you’re _my_ person, and I love _you_ more than anything, Ham-Sandwich-Woman.”  
  
Jessica smiled in between sobs, “Still don’t hate it.”  
  
Carol kissed her forehead, “Out of all the heroes that this kid has known and will get to know throughout the course of his most likely astounding life, the most important one is right here, and I got to call her my friend, and so much more.”  
  
“Shut up and just let me kiss you already.”  
  
Jessica raised her lips to Carol’s. There it rested at length. An act of love and defiance against the fickle whims of fate. There was a permanence to this moment that would defy even the arcane and primal elements that constrained and commanded the nature of all things. A promise forged from their combined countenance, far stronger than any power within the boundaries of creation. No matter what happened next, they would always have this moment, even if it only ever existed again within the confines of memory. A single star in a constellation of sublime recollection, boldly soaring, and brightly burning, within the firmament of time.  
  
When they broke the kiss, Carol whispered something thoughtfully as they held each other close.  
  
“‘_Their happiness was in each other's keeping, and both were unafraid_.’”  
  
“What’s that from?” Jessica asked.  
  
“From a series of old books my mother read to me when I was a child. It was about a very unique girl that didn’t have a family,” Carol replied. “So she decided to make one.”  
  
“It sounds lovely,” Jessica replied.  
  
“It was,” Carol replied quietly, but with a tone that implied definitiveness, “...I’ll read it to you when all of this is over.”  
  
“Right,” Jessica replied softly. “When it’s over.”  
  
They both looked back at Gerry. Carol squeezed her hand.  
  
“Let’s go cure our kid.”


	7. Remember Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Conclusion of Remember Me. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the ride. Remember to stan Carol & Jess. Never give up. Much love.

“Remember this is a loaner, bring it back in one piece otherwise you’ll be hearing from Stark Legal,” Tony said with a deadpan expression, tracing a figurative white glove finger along the inside trim of the control panel, which had a Thor bobble-head on the dash. Beneath the bobblehead was a strip of faded and torn electrical tape that read ‘Goldilocks’ in black sharpie, clearly in Stark’s handwriting. “You don’t want that, by the way, I have a crack solicitor on retainer right now, and she’s got one hell of a temper.”  
  
“I like to think it’s the more rational part of my mind that you appreciate,” Jennifer said as she held Gerry over her shoulder, bouncing him up and down before eventually handing him back over to Jessica. She gave him an affectionate kiss on the head before surrendering him, however.  
  
They walked up the back docking ramp into the small suborbital spacecraft that sat being prepped by crew and supporting machinery in the hanger bay of the Avengers facility. It wasn’t the newest ship, but it would get the job done in getting them to Minn-Nerva’s cloaked lab without too much trouble. Carol walked up carrying a bundle of gear and clothing for Gerry and other potential incidentals, since Minn-Nerva, still in cuffs, was being vague on details until they got closer to the intentioned destination.  
  
“No, you’re a bulldog on and off the court, and that’s how I like it,” he replied as he opened a briefcase from the infirmary. Jessica held Gerry in her lap as Tony leaned down to administer one final dose of the counter-agent to the young boy’s arm. Gerry giggled and gave Stark a hug afterward. Tony leaned into it before getting back up.  
  
“Love you too, kiddo.”  
  
He looked over at Carol and Jessica as Carol began powering up the dash and initiating a pre-flight checklist. Jessica helped buckle Gerry into a smaller seat adjacent to her modified by Stark for just this situation. He didn’t fuss too much and spent most of the time staring at everyone with a bit of wide-eyed curiosity, especially as the lights of the control system began to flare up in earnest.  
  
Minn-Nerva was dumped somewhat unceremoniously into a chair with an altogether different but equally obvious purpose in mind. The straps were strong, the material tight, and the fit restraining. She wiggled a bit as increased pressure mounted across her lap and chest. They didn’t stop until she was intimately secure and incapable of much movement. She raised her brow slightly in response to the arrangement after glancing down as far as the confining elements permitted.  
  
“You know you’re going to have to let me go once we get closer, otherwise you’ll never see the lab, it’s_ still_ cloaked,” she commented. “All this fuss seems a bit juvenile _and_ fruitless, considering.”  
  
Jennifer lowered herself to eye level with Minn-Nerva and gave her a cold stare which was returned in equal measure, “If _anything_ happens to _any_ of them, I’ll hunt you down and kill you myself. It won’t be simple, either. It will be the Hulk coming for you, not me. She won’t end you immediately. She’ll plug every limb from your body and then snuff you out like an insect.”  
  
“Tsk tsk, not a very heroic tone you’re striking, eh Avenger?” Minn-Nerva said without a hint of outward concern. “But worry not, I will keep my word. No one will be unduly harmed as part of this agreed upon exchange.”  
  
Jennifer growled and cracked her knuckles, but managed to keep her overall girth in check. She got back up and gave Carol and Jessica a hug.  
  
“Be safe.”  
  
Carol smiled back after booting the navigation system, “You too. Where’s grumpy?”  
  
Tony glanced up from closing the medical briefcase, gesturing back behind him with a thumb, “Jones? She’s headed back to her office, something about ‘having enough of this space shit and the dumb blue prick.’”  
  
“Oh, thank you_ very much_,” Minn-Nerva muttered.  
  
“I don’t think she was a fan of your ‘arrangement,’ guys,” Tony said as he got up and walked towards the cockpit. “Not that I am, either, but she made the right call. She can’t do more from here.”  
  
“Still, she left in a bit of a hurry,” Jessica said absentmindedly, adjusting Gerry’s seat for the fifth time like a nervous tick. Carol rested her hand on hers and she looked back up with a bit of guilty regret and nervousness. “Sorry.”  
  
“Don’t be. Just be you. That’s all I need,” Carol said. Jessica nodded and kissed her hand before sitting back in the chair.  
  
Tony walked up and offered his hand to Carol. She took it and shook it. His expression turned a bit darker and emotions slack before finally speaking, “We’ve come a long way from that discussion we had when I found you hiding upstairs in your old bedroom all those years ago, if you remember. Remember the quote I had you memorize early on, a bit afterward?”  
  
“_I have found that the process of discovering who I really am begins with knowing who I really don't want to be_,” Carol replied solemnly, and she glanced over at Jessica.  
  
He nodded, “That’s right, and I think I can say with absolute confidence that is no longer an issue for you. But I need you to promise me you won’t forget those words, especially now,” and he glanced over at Minn-Nerva who gave him a stern and withering glare.  
  
“I won’t. I promise,” Carol said. There was a hard certainty of promise in her eye as she did so. He noticed, nodded, and suddenly reverted back to his old self.  
  
“Good. Also, I just want to say that I’m here for you, no matter what, thick or thin, eggs and bacon,” he said, then looked at Jessica and Gerry, “All of you.”  
  
“Thanks Tony,” Jessica said.  
  
He nodded, and excused himself in the manner people do when given the short window of opportunity afforded by happenstance and foresight to avoid showing themselves crying in the company of others. Jennifer grabbed him and wrapped her right arm over his shoulder while glancing back over her own as they descended the steps.  
  
“Don’t worry ladies, I’ll take care of softy here,” she said with a sad smile. Tony, in reply, just gave a weak wave and thumbs up, slapping a hatch release as they went down together, and the ramp slowly ascended as the cabin began to pressurize for departure.  
  
“Honestly, you’re saying goodbye like you’ll never see her again,” Minn-Nerva said as swiveled her chair - the only method of motion afforded to her at the moment to stare at Tony and Jennifer walking away. The sarcastically dark intonation in her voice, laced with the double-meaning of implied threat of truth, rang out abundantly clear. Without missing a beat, Tony’s hand went from the thumbs up to a middle finger as the docking doors snapped shut.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been insulted so many times in one day in my life,” Minn-Nerva said offhandedly, “Are you _sure_ you’re all heroes?”  
  
“Big damn ones,” Carol said, and chuckled. Minn-Nerva looked at her funny, shrugged and glanced out a view-port while shaking her head.  
  
Jessica leaned in, “You did _not_ just make a _Firefly_ reference in front of one of the bad guys.”  
  
“I totally did.”  
  
“God are you ever _not_ a giant nerd?”  
  
Carol popped in some bubble gum and began to chew like a seasoned baseball player tearing into a fresh Mail Pouch, “Says the one that gave me a ‘Conversational Klingon’ audiotape from the Klingon Language Institute for Christmas?”  
  
Jessica crossed her arms, “It was a white elephant gift exchange.”  
  
“_qamuSHa'_,” Carol replied playfully, throwing one of the larger levers attached to the center console hard forward.  
  
The ship’s engines kicked on and roared to life, and slowly and steadily they pulled away from the hanger and emerged out into the higher altitudes above the bustling metropolis below. Cloud cover began to flutter past the windows as they automatically darkened when exposed to the raw intensity of the sun. Still, it was bright enough that Carol dug around in her hip pouches again, this time to produce Jessica’s yellow specs.  
  
“Thanks,” Jessica said, taking the shades and flicking them onto the bridge of her nose in one swift motion, “You’re pretty handy with those pouches.”  
  
“Despite what some people may think, they’re not just for show.”  
  
“I never thought they were just for show.”  
  
Carol glanced over with a dubious expression and raised an eyebrow. She then blew out and popped a big pink bubble, not saying a word.  
  
Jessica raised her hands, “Fine! I thought that _maybe_ you added them to just look important.”  
  
“There it is."  
  
“We having the outfit talk again?” Jessica fired back testily, but with just a hint of mirth behind the veneer of fury, "Because we can go there, girlfriend."  
  
“Looks like it.”  
  
Shrugging and looking unperturbed, Jessica replied, “Okay then, let's _go_ there. I recall you mocking my polar gear.”  
  
“Oh, you mean the blue icicle.”  
  
Jessica scoffed, “How _dare_ you.”  
  
Carol shrugged, trying to keep herself from smiling and ruining the teasing streak she was on, “I was tempted to ask you the same thing when I saw you wearing it.”  
  
Jessica pointed, “Again, and for the last time, that outfit was _awesome_.”  
  
“You know what,” Carol said, reaching over to hold Jessica’s hand with a wink. “It was.”  
  
Jessica took it and they slowly threaded their fingers together while the cloth of sky tore away and the sparkle of stars penetrated the blue veneer of heaven. As they gained altitude Gerry pre-occupied himself with a bunch of random toys strewn on a small platform in front of his, oblivious in the way children are to the awkward, somber atmosphere brought on by the situation and it’s ultimate intent.  
  
“Are you honestly planning on bantering like teenage fools in love and ignore me the entire way up?” Minn-Nerva asked disgustedly.  
  
“Yep,” they both said in unison.  
  
“How do you plan on doing that? We’re only a few feet apart in this delightfully...quaint vessel.”  
  
Carol flipped a switch, “Like this.”  
  
A thing darkened glass barrier descended and separated the back row of seats from the front like a private limousine. Minn-Nerva started shouting at the glass barrier but not an iota of sound managed to penetrate. Carol looked back at her and just smiled and waved before returning her attention to the controls, which were plotted to put the ship into a mid-range orbit around the Earth.  
  
“Huh, didn’t know it could do that.”  
  
“I did,” Carol said. “I helped design the damn thing. I think people keep forgetting how long I've been around."  
  
"I haven't forgotten one thing about you," Jessica glanced over at Carol with a smug smile, “But, in all seriousness, you know we need her to de-cloak that lab, right?"  
  
Carol leaned back and laid her feet up on the dash, “Yeah.”  
  
“It won’t take that long to get there.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“So you’re just being spiteful and vindictive then,” Jessica said, still smiling and shaking her head.  
  
Carol looked over while donning some aviator shades she grabbed from one of her utility pouches, “That and it felt good.”

“CeeCee!” Gerry chimed in while pointing at Carol with a big grin of his own.  
  
  
\---

_S.H.I.E.L.D. Rapid Response Facility C1-DA NY - Supplemental Transport Storage  
Undisclosed Location West of New York City_  
  
“Hey Joe, get a look at this.”  
  
Two guards sipping coffee in a cramp security room were relaxing while archiving elements of video across a wide swath of various screens cataloguing nondescript corridors, access points, and sensitive assets. The S.H.I.E.L.D. logo sat somewhat dusty but well-illuminated behind them, silhouetting their outlines in the darkened room. One was hunched over a series of tapes and slowly swapping them out as a machine was backing them up one by one. The other, rolled his chair over to get closer.  
  
“Something up with the daily backups?”  
  
The other shook his head, “No, that’s just it, usually I get some kind of latency issue when migrating these to the overnight server, but it’s been seamless. Moving at a steady clip.”  
  
Joe shrugged, “So relax Mike, geez. About time we got cut a break for a change working graveyard, been ages since C1’s had an upgrade to its hardware, despite filling out the paperwork - in _triplicate _\- and you know how much I hate that.”  
  
“Wait, we received a hardware upgrade recently?”  
  
“Yeah, today, when that hot number came in from DT, said she was here to upgrade our security servers and network equipment, so I escorted her to the white room.”  
  
Mike slowly swiveled around, “A ‘hot number from DT,’ what was her badge designation?”  
  
Joe shrugged, “I don’t _know_ man, it was the usual flash in the palm, looked like Ops, and you know never get in those guys’ way when they’re in a hurry.”  
  
Mike got out of his chair and started tapping away at his keyboard with a bit more urgency, “I thought she said she was IT.”  
  
“Well she never actually _said_ it man, but she was rocking specs and had these thigh-high socks with a skirt, ugh, I wish I wasn’t such a sucker for sexy smart. I figure they got IT people too, right?”  
  
Mike looked up as screens slowly started showing locked-out error messages in bold red font. He went back to the security feeds uploading and then sent them through a predictive algorithm, which promptly discovered that they were running a short loop of nothing. Spy stuff 101.  
  
“Holy _shit_, Joe, okay, okay, I need you to focus, this is serious. _What. Did. She. Look. Like.”  
_Joe looked up at the growing number of screens going dark or showing the looped footage and his demeanor sank as the reality of what may be happening sank in, “Dark brunette. Uh...brown eyes, few inches shy of six...big dark glasses ...Um…”  
  
“What did her badge _say_, Joe?”  
  
“I don’t know! She had all the right passcodes and general knowledge stuff!”  
  
“I bet you could guesstimate her cup size before you’d remember anything else…”  
  
“Hey, fuck you man, I got busted down to this assignment in BFE just the same as you did.”  
  
Mike ran past Joe and grabbed a big red phone attached to a big red wire that ran down a big red painted line that fed into the wall. He let it ring automatically, as it was designed to do, and spoke into it the minute the line connected, “Get a recon squad down here, we have a breach.”  
  
Within a matter of mere moments a full squad of armed agents in tactical gear were swarming down the main access hallway, shouting “Clear!” Both men were waiting, arms crossed, listening to the proceedings, and shouting, fade farther and farther down the corridor. A bunch of men and women in technical lab coats were attaching equipment to the machines and going over what little data and video feeds remained, as they were promptly informed at initial inspection that a Trojan virus of sorts was eating away at any record of events within the last 24 hours.  
  
“We’re fucked,” Joe said to Mike.  
  
“Yep.”  
  
“It’s my fault.”  
  
“That too.”  
  
They stood and wallowed in self-pity until finally, near the end of the hallway and close to the hangar bay access, they heard across the radio chatter one of the tac-teams reporting in, “Command this is Raven, we found something, you’re going to want to check his out.”  
  
They ran down to the location for lack of anything better to do, and also to escape from the recriminating glares of the technical forensic team rebuilding what was left of the mainframe. As they approached, they saw the tactical squad slowly entering a giant hole in the wall leading to the hangar. They ducked slightly to pass through, and nearly tripped over rubble strewn across the floor of the wide hangar bay, whose doors were standing wide open to the evening air.  
  
“Someone must have blown their way through here,” Joe said as he followed the tactical team further in.  
  
Mike knelt down and examined the pulverized material, then walked back and looked at the periphery of the hole. He ran his finger along the edge and it came back spotless. Everything was clean.  
  
“This wasn’t a bomb,” Mike said to himself. “Someone punched a hole through a foot of fucking reinforced concrete.”  
  
“Hey Mike!”  
  
He looked up. Joe pointed at one of the walls. He looked over. There was a giant vacancy in the corner where one of the larger and more advanced, and extraordinarily armed, transport craft was buttoned up.  
  
“Things just keep getting better and better.”  
  
He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted so that everyone would hear, “I hope the eye candy was worth it, you dumb son of a bitch!” Everyone turned and things got awkwardly quiet for a bit. One of the commandos walked up to him, “Are you the security officer on duty?”  
  
“Until the pink slip comes in.”  
  
The man raised his tactical visor up to check a digital clipboard before glancing back up, “Didn’t you also have a pilot stationed here?”  
  
“Yeah, we do, she’s our CO,” Mike reached for his radio, “McCabe this is Andrews, what’s your twenty?”  
  
Silence.  
  
He clicked the transmit button again with a degree of trepidation, “Sarah, come in, we got a situation here in the hangar bay. Respond please.”  
  
The result was the same. The other agent crossed his arms disapprovingly, “What kind of hammock-style outfit are you guys running here? You didn’t even realize she was _missing_ until _now_?”

Joe came running over, “Hey did you ask Sarah if she saw anything?”  
  
“Not now, Joe,” he replied. Cupping his face into his hands. “Just...not now.”

\---

As the approached upper Earth orbit, Carol finally relinquished the privacy of the cockpit, and the privacy screen rose. After some finagling with the controls in order to adapt and transmit the proper transponder and security codes, Minn-Nerva’s lab de-cloaked, and frankly, it was far larger than Jessica or Carol ever anticipated.  
  
“Woah,” Jessica said automatically.  
  
Minn-Nerva’s smirk could be heard almost through the tone of her voice as she replied, “Yes, well, one cannot undergo monumental moments of rebuilding one’s entire society without a platform to do so.”  
  
They entered the docking bay of the enormous installation and landed, disembarking together. Carol begrudgingly removed Minn-Nerva from her restrained position and both walked behind her as they proceeded along the deck towards what seemed to be the main access point to the rest of the station.  
  
Jessica held Gerry, who stared at the entire affair with a degree of wide-eyed wonder, as was his usual behavior. She fussed with his jacket a bit in the stations cool climate, and looked over at Carol with a worried face. Carol returned it and patted her arm reassuringly.  
  
“We’re holding you to your word on this” Carol replied. “You leaned hard into playing with Gerry’s life in making this deal happen, and while I know being an overzealous evil genius plays true to type most of the time, I pray that there’s a degree of legitimacy to the self-proclaimed Kree honor you claim to uphold.”  
  
“I have no desire to do anything untoward as long as it fits in with my plans,” Minn-Nerva replied as she entered a security code and the large main access doors rumbled open. “Come inside, please.”  
  
As they progressed towards the main laboratory, they passed by numerous complex machines that, to Carol, appeared to be large energy banks and storage of various forms of biological material. It was almost like they were walking through a giant petri dish strapped to a network of batteries and reactors - a volatile combination, but definitely a facility capable of conducting experiments that play with the primal elements of nature.  
  
As they passed by a particularly large offshoot, Minn-Nerva keyed in a command from a device at her hip and several bay windows overlooking the rooms dimmed to obscure what was within. Someone with normal vision would have missed everything, as the dimming effect was nigh-instantaneous. But Jessica caught a glimpse of what was hidden from view - rows of large storage tubes filled with a strange pinkish liquid. Whatever was inside she couldn’t make it out, but it reminded her of specimen jars, but collected together on an industrial scale.  
  
Something about all this didn’t add up. This was definitely one of those moments she wished she had a proper spider-sense, but it didn’t seem to matter. Her own intuition was firing off just fine. A shiver went down her spine. She looked over at Carol and she could tell that Danvers was just as on edge, but there was a resolute look her eyes about getting this done that Jessica didn’t think she’d be deterred from. At least until pressed.  
  
Finally they emerged into an open-air laboratory that seemed built to purpose, most likely because it was. It contained banks of machines, computers, screens, operating theater, stasis chambers, and any number of additional technological sundries and wonders designed to break apart the essence of life and reconstitute it as required. The Hala star was emblazoned in a restrained, faded gold alongside the upper reaches of a far wall, and emotional dissonance of seeing it in such a way hit Jessica and Carol both squarely in the gut.  
  
“I’ll need Gerry, here, and you over here,” Minn-Nerva gestured. For Carol, the indicated location was where she was required to stand and then lay back against a large metal platform at a slight angle. It was brightly lit. For Gerry, a small chair tailored to his frame, with enough space for Jessica to stand alongside him.  
  
Minn-Nerva commented on Jessica’s examination of the chair, “I have no reason to cause discomfort or fear, I just need what’s inside him, out, and hopefully with minimal fuss. Please, feel free to stand next to him and provide whatever consolation is required, as I know his human elements are prone to emotional outburst.”  
  
“Thanks, I think,” Jessica said as she sat Gerry into the padded chair and glanced over at Carol slowly settling herself into her own respective device. She was in agony, having to choose between being near Gerry or being near Carol, but they both knew the obvious decision there. Their eyes connected. No words needed to be spoken. Enough were shared within the last few days, the last few years, where that kind of communication wasn’t necessary, even if it was the last thing they’d relay.  
  
_Stop thinking that_, Jessica admonished herself. _Focus. _  
  
The chair rotated to face Carol, and Carol’s vertical back-plated station did the same. Gerry quietly went limp in the chair. Minn-Nerva imputed a series of commands from a large center console. Then, from behind it, she produced a small device, pointed it at Jessica, and fired before anyone could react.  
  
“Jessica!” Carol screamed.  
  
For something so small it hit like a freight train. She was knocked back at least five feet and fell onto her back, curled into a ball as something within whatever hit her coursed quickly through her system. She could barely move, let alone get back to her feet, but she started crawling, slowly back to Gerry.  
  
“I...knew it,” Jessica said through gritted teeth. “Shouldn’t...have…”  
  
Minn-Nerva left the station and walked towards her, “In fairness, I gave you little choice in the matter, if that is any consolation.”

Carol tried to extract herself but was rooted to the spot by whatever was activated, and felt something tapping into her well-spring of personal energy as well. An odd sensation, but she could only watch as Minn-Nerva walked towards Jessica crawling slowly across the metal.  
  
“I’m afraid I took precautions into this situation, and I’d be insulted if you thought otherwise,” Minn-Nerva mused, and then fired into Jessica’s midsection again, this time immobilizing her further but leaving her conscious. Carol raged, but was still unable to anything other than lightly wiggle her extremities.  
  
“Now that this ugly pretense is taken care of, I can proceed unmolested,” she mused as Jessica ceased to struggle for a moment and just glared at her. She walked back to the console and began typing in further commands. “Now, you may feel a slight prick.”  
  
Carol felt a sharp pain and tensed up, ramrod straight, as a shock passed through her entire body. It ravaged across her, toe to top, and she screamed. Jessica watched from the floor as a tear fell in a mixture of anger and grief, unable to do anything for the moment but watch.  
  
“That will begin analyzing your DNA substructures while this,” she said while punching another series of commands and a bunch of ambient lasers strobed across Gerry’s body, “Will begin processing what’s inside Gerald here and extract what I need for the new body.”  
  
Jessica spoke said through gritted teeth, “Gerry...you…”  
  
“Your son is fine, I may have renegotiated the terms of our arrangement for expediency and to ensure I get what I want, but I have no designs on harming the child, this is a non-invasive procedure,” Minn-Nerva said, not taking her eyes off the console. “Contrary to what you may think or believe, I am not a monster.”  
  
“Could have fooled me,” Carol said as another wave of nausea-inducing pain hit her.  
  
Minn-Nerva glanced up, “_Your_ procedure, however, is very invasive, so I suggest you stay as still as possible, I’ll require accurate readings for the reconstitution.”  
  
As she said that, another station next to Carol lit up, and a series of metallic arms descended from the ceiling and began weaving light in a complex pattern down into the platform.  
  
“I have no need for you, Carol Danvers. I need Car-Ell returned to me, and without all the complications of years of memory wipes, rebuilds, wounds, recoveries, rampant alcoholism, and…,” she looked over at Jessica with absolute disgust. “Emotional entanglements.”  
  
“What are you doing?” Carol asked warily, looking over at the arms as they went about her work.  
  
“When I said I wanted to make you better, that did not necessarily mean you specifically. I’m making a better _you_,” Minn-Nerva replied simply. “You’ll see momentarily.”  
  
Jessica struggled to sit up but could barely do so. Whatever kind of weapon that was, it laid her out, but she did manage to get onto her side to watch what was going on and to keep an eye on Gerry and Carol. The arms continued to do their work, and slowly a copy of Carol Danvers was being constructed in the adjoining station. The lights repeatedly scanning over Gerry flickered and died down.  
  
“You son is back to his normal self, Ms. Drew,” Minn-Nerva said dryly, “Once I transmit this data into the newly improved Car-Ell, selectively curated of course, I will have no more need of you and you’ll be free to return home with him. I give you my word, and this time, without any kind of momentary embellishments.”  
  
“What...happen...Carol?” Jessica said managed to mutter out.  
  
“I reverse engineered a bit of what your X-Men attempted to do when they tried to re-infuse her energy as her ‘Binary’ personae, whatever monstrosity that was. This time I’ll be doing the opposite, of course. Once I transfer over some of her latent powers, she’ll fade away, slowly, and painlessly I hope,” Minn-Nerva said without much care. “Her memory and powers will fade and then she’ll just be a shell.”  
  
“Stop...you…”  
  
“Oh, I don’t think so, and in fac-”  
  
Suddenly alarms started blaring throughout the station. Minn-Nerva nervously looked up then back at her console, rapidly tapping keys and gesturing at three-dimensional holographic command interfaces, “Well, this complicates things.”  
  
“What is it?” Carol said as part of her vision blurred briefly as another wave of nausea hit her.  
  
“Hmm.”  
  
“Might as well tell us, clearly you weren’t expecting it.”  
  
“Yes, well, let’s just say that a variety of my actions and experimentations were not sanctioned by what’s left of the current Kree authorities,” Minn-Nerva said. “And it appears a sizable task force has arrived to ‘take over’ my experimentation - convenient how morality is trumped by the opportunity to take credit for my work.”  
  
Carol sighed, “So this is less a rescue or an attempt to stop you and me witnessing one faction of Kree scrambling to take over what’s happening to me.”  
  
“More or less.”  
  
Carol rolled her eyes despite the danger of her situation, “And you give _me_ grief for not advertising the fact I’m half-Kree to people.”  
  
“If your sense of humor is the last thing to go, I’m going to be greatly disappointed,” Minn-Nerva said with a degree of resigned disdain as she continued to type, “They just de-cloaked my station again, they’re overriding my security systems and attaching themselves to the hull. I’m going to have to activate defense protocols, this may get messy.”  
  
The station shook as it came under weapons fire. Some of the small periphery windows higher up showed different colored lights of illumination flash with each consecutive blast. Minn-Neva entered into a series of additional commands and the sound of returning weapons fire from the station could be heard. In addition, miniature forms of Kree sentries and other automatons activated from the corners of the room and took up strategic positions.  
  
“They’ll be boarding any minute,” Carol said. “Let me go and I’ll help you.”  
  
“Not a chance, plus you’re effectively dying.”  
  
“Protect...Gerry…” Jessica gasped out.  
  
Carol gestured, “What she said, I need to keep this kid safe, and the only way to do that is to fight back. Whatever I have left, I want to use it to help keep him safe.”  
  
Minn-Nerva looked, “Fine. But your secondary priority is to keep your copy safe as well.”  
  
They both looked over at the nearly-completed Carol copy, this time adorned with Kree commando attire, “If she gets loose before she’s ready...are you familiar with _Frankenstein’s Monster_?”  
  
“Oh god,_ really_?”  
  
“More or less,” Minn-Nerva repeated again with a shrug.  
  
“Alright,” Carol nodded, “Let me out and we can go from there.”  
  
Minn-Nerva paused for a second, weighing her options, until another explosion reverberated across the deck, and hull penetration lasers began to emerge from different areas of the room. A large, metal fist punched through one of the walls.  
  
“Fine,” she keyed a command and Carol fell to the floor in a sudden heap, before willing herself to get back up again. She walked over and knelt down next to Jessica to take stock of her condition. Jessica waved her away.  
  
“Go. Fine, go,” she said wearily, pulling herself up into a sitting position next to Gerry’s chair.  
  
At that moment the walls exploded outward nearly simultaneously, and larger sentries and assorted Kree commandos in blacked out military attire surged into the breaches. Minn-Nerva’s defenses opened fire with both regular and energy based ordinances, creating a strange dissonance and cacophony of sound and color.  
  
Several of the mechanical combatants on both sides began to explode immediately, debris flying around at high speeds, impacting against bulkheads and equipment. Carol ducked underneath a flying Sentry head and fired photon blasts into two of the nearest Kree combatants, throwing them backward against the wall, out of the action. She then spun around and jumped into the air, only to collapse back down again. Flying was too much to ask for her in condition, apparently.  
  
“Fine, we go old school,” Carol muttered, cracked her knuckles, and waded into the fray. Minn-Nerva jumped alongside her, dual-wielding two sinister-looking pistols, firing into enemies attempting to flank their position and get to the replication equipment, where the new Car-Ell was complete and her eyes were fixed open.  
  
“Your replacement is done,” Minn-Nerva said. “The problem now is waiting for the data to transmit over in time. We have to hold the line.”  
  
“What the hell do you think we’re doing now?”  
  
“Fair point, but just know if anything gets through, there’s no telling what may happen.”  
  
“Thanks for reminding me that my overpowered _superfrau _with no functioning brain is within meters of my child,” Carol said sarcastically. “I needed more motivation.”  
  
Explosions continued to rock the deck as laser and photon blasts flew across the room, impacting against sensitive equipment and the deck-plates. Jessica pulled Gerry out of his chair still unconscious, and tucked him into a small cabinet nearby, hoping the shielding of the equipment would be helpful. As she turned around she saw a black-clad Kree operative along with a giant Sentry marching up to her position.  
  
“Thankfully, I don’t need to stand to do _this_,” Jessica said in a light shout, extending her arms out as far as they could for aiming, even though every part of her body screamed in protest at the action.  
  
_KA-ZAP._  
  
Yellowish-green energy coalesced around her palms, then her hands. She pointed, and the collected bio-electric surge jumped eagerly from her fingertips. It passed through her foes, detonating among them with tremendous force. The Sentry exploded in a giant fountain of sparks, it’s midsection nearly gone as it fell to the floor, smoldering and ruined. The shrapnel from the blast tore through the body of the Kree, decapitating him and disemboweling him. He died instantly, and Jessica nearly threw up at the sight of her act. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen or caused before, but for some reason the sudden violence of it took her off guard and she held in a retch.  
  
“Don’t go soft now,” she said to herself. “I need the old me to step up. Turn it off. Turn it all off. Think of the mission.”  
  
She glanced at where she hid Gerry. _Think of the mission. Think of the mission.  
  
_Forcing herself to her feet, she crept along the periphery of the fight, compelling her herself to move through sheer determination and force of will. She started to slowly limber up by taking out low-hanging fruit opportunities while maintaining vigilance over the area that contained Carol’s doppelganger and her son. After clinging to the ceiling above an assembled group that were creeping up on Carol and Minn-Nerva’s blind spot, she fell down into a crouch, swept them all with her leg, then launched up the back of a sentry to punch through its head and fall back down as it exploded and collapsed to the floor. Rebounding after hitting the ground, she jumped back into the group of Kree getting back up and became a flurry of fists and legs, dispatching each before they could fully recover.  
  
That wasn't the end of it, however. Upon rising above the tangle of defeated foes, she was staring down nearly half-a-dozen additional attackers. Jessica launched herself into the air, running along the side of the wall at a 90-degree angle, spinning off of it in a somersault that placed her in the midst of all of them.   
  
"Hello boys," she said at them as they adjusted to her so suddenly in their midst. "Let's dance."  
  
What happened after this moment were based entirely on a combination of experience, instinct, and execution. Every attack was cold, swift, and calculated. Every opposing action was anticipated and blocked or parried, followed through with an efficient reposte. They couldn't catch her, couldn't counter her, and couldn't contain her. She fell back into her old persona. One she hated, and yet the darker parts of her reveled in. She released herself to become a merciless instrument of violence. Her eyes went wild in the abandonment of reason to action, and all who opposed her fell like leaves on the wind. 

The melee continued as explosions and echoes of light continued to bloom outside and shake everything. For every inch they held, as the minutes grew by, more enemies seemed to filter through the breach holes. Their numbers seemed endless and Carol could feel herself getting fatigued, but it was more than that.  
  
There was a numbness creeping up into her limbs, and a blur creeping into her vision. Enemies began to land more hits, and it was harder getting up each time. Her suit began to tear and fray, the iconic sash billowing in a thousand different tatters and strands of crimson, matching the blood collecting around her fists and arms from a multitude of wounds.  
  
Minn-Nerva for her part was not faring much better, and Jessica saw her slowly falling back despite their best efforts to her position. One of her pistols overheated and malfunctioned, and she overloaded it’s battery and hurled it into one of the breach holes, causing a tremendous explosion that knocked one of the docked ships away, it’s listless shell falling outward into the void. There was a tremendous pulling sensation and a gust of wind as space beckoned, only to be cut off by the erection of an emergency force field where the gash in the hull sat jagged and ugly, with the stars looming beyond the semi-translucent energy threshold.

Between all the minor victories, the concessions of defeat began to mount, until finally Carol took a shot to the back and fell. She got back up, only to be shot down again. Minn-Nerva grabbed her and hauled her to her feet, “Get up, soldier.”  
  
Carol nodded, but there was an unfocused nature to her eyes. They regrouped and managed to regain some lost ground, until a grenade of some sort fell at their feet and detonated with a short fuse. Nothing could have been done, and the blast sent them both hurtling back towards Jessica.  
  
“Carol!” Jessica screamed, and tried to get to her, but was preoccupied with her own defense. Carol’s suit was in tatters, stained in blood and her face bruised and smeared with soot. Minn-Nerva got back up, but it was clear that for now the fight was out of her. Her shoulder looked out it was knocked out of its socket, the arm hanging limply and her face a mask of intense pain. Jessica fell back to them both, but suddenly Minn-Nerva used her good arm to put her hand on Jessica’s shoulder.  
  
“I surrender,” she said. Jessica turned to her, a surprised look. Minn-Nerva leaned in, “Go hide your son, close the door of the cabinet.”  
  
“I surrender!” Minn-Nerva repeated as Jessica stepped back and kicked the door to the cabinet contained Gerry fully closed. She heard the subtle latch swing shut and hoped that she could get back to him soon before he woke in the darkened, confined space.  
  
Minn-Nerva reached over to her console and called off her defenses, and the Kree commandos and sentries ceased their attack. After a momentary standoff, one of the Kree with a bit of orange metal on his shoulders stepped forward and presented himself to Minn-Nerva.

“I am Major Kor-Var, and I believe you are under arrest,” he said flatly, and then walked up to the creation chamber that held the new Car-Ell in suspension. “I see you managed to create another one of your abominations.”  
  
“_That_ is the future of our people,” Minn-Nerva replied, clutching her arm.  
  
He gestured at the chamber after looking at Carol on the floor, “_That_ is an unsanctioned use of resources, an unauthorized creation of life_, and_ if I’m not mistaken, a re-creation of Carol Danvers in a Kree uniform. I’m not here for my observation skills, but I know a duplicate when I see one.”  
  
“Can I see if she’s okay? Please.” Jessica begged, clutching at her side, looking over at Carol on the floor.  
  
Kor-Var turned to her without emotion, “Neither of you are of concern to me, go ahead, though it looks like she is not much longer for this realm."  
  
He then glanced at Minn-Nerva with disgust, “Most likely your doing again.”  
  
She didn’t reply, she just spit at his feet. He shrugged, “Nevertheless, this...copy now exists. We will find use of this thing, especially if she contains all the memories of her predecessors. Someone re-cloak the station before the human space authorities can detect us.”

While they talked, Jessica sat next to Carol and lifted her head into her lap. Carol’s eyes flitted open, “Where am I? I need to get back to base.”  
  
“You’re with me, and that’s all that matters,” Jessica said tearfully, wiping away at the streaks down her face. “Just stay with me, okay? I’ll get us home.”

Carol tried to get up, “Need to stop...Deathbird.”  
  
Jessica kept her down and held her tightly, “Oh Carol, stay with me.”  
  
Carol’s eyes began to flutter a bit and her breathing grew ragged, “Wait...I...I know you.”  
  
“Yeah, you do!” Jessica smiled and kissed her face, “Remember Me. Remember me, okay? Please, just remember, and I’ll get you home.”  
  
“Always...catch me.”  
  
Jessica laughed and nodded while trying to maintain some measure of emotional stability,“That’s right. I always got you, girl. Always.”  
  
“I...remember.”  
  
She lifted Carol up into her arms, but then overhead the Kree talking nearby with her sensitive hearing, “Major says once they secure the double, to destroy everyone here and the station too.”  
  
_Oh god. Oh god..._  
  
Escape routes, alternate ideas, and desperate options ran through Jessica’s head. But in every scenario she could account for herself, for herself and Carol, or herself and Gerry. But not all three. There were too many enemies. Too many variables. She lowered Carol down and got ready for one last attempt to take as many out with her as she could.  
  
That was, until Carol’s communicator in her tattered collar flared to life. It was faint, but there was a voice at the other end. Jessica bent over and fished the comm wire out of Carol’s collar and leaned in as close as she could.  
  
_<”Hello, is anyone there? Please respond.”>  
  
_Jessica prayed this thing was automatically two way and replied back softly to try to not draw attention, pretending like she was simply grieving.  
  
“Yes, hello? This is Spider-Woman responding on Captain Marvel’s comm channel, who is this?”  
  
_<”Is she okay?”_”>  
  
“To be honest, no, but she’s alive and we got a bit of a situation here.”  
  
There was a pause and additional cross-comm chatter as another voice shouted_, <”Our girl’s still in it!”>_ and a bit of cheering. The original voice came on the screen.  
  
_<”Don’t worry, we’ve been following your situation for the last two days and were waiting to see what was up. Guess we know now. Just hold on, we got a distraction for you coming right up.”>_

“Who _are _you? Where?”

_<”You’ll see in a second. Just call us the cavalry, and we brought some friends_.”>  
  
There was a flash of light from the windows overlooking space. Then several more. Then even more. For a moment, things returned to normal, until all hell broke loose. Lights of all kinds reemerged outside and from what she could see from the hull breach and view-ports, space became a veritable light show of explosions. Kree assault craft were detonating one by one, and several of the docked vessels were knocked free of their moorings.  
  
The explosions were quickly snuffed out by the oppressiveness of the vacuum of space, but the attack was so swift and fierce that the illumination of detonations were nearly unbroken in scope. The station shook from the nearby blasts. Kor-Var turned to one of his subordinates, “What in the blazes is going on?”  
  
The Kree subordinate officer held his hand to his head for a moment before looking up in shock, “We’re under attack.”  
  
“By who?!”  
  
Just as he said that, two ships roared passed, firing and blowing up several more Kree vessels in successive order. Carols eyes fluttered open and she saw them pass, Jessica glancing up as well to see them cross from one end of the station’s view-ports to the other. One was compact but had wings fanned out like an eagle. The other, much larger in size, had a long neck that terminated in a glowing snub-nose, long wings, and lit up the sky with the sheer power of it’s engines and fury of it’s weapons.  
  
Behind them, a flurry of smaller Alpha Flight fighters streamed in to attack. They were under-powered compared to the Kree vessels and several were destroyed, but more punched through and focused their fire to give the other two larger ships opportunity to counter.  
  
The voice came back on, except this time broadcasting on all channels, which echoed through every communication output device, including the station itself.

_<”This is STAR-LORD of the Ryder, Command-”>  
  
_He was interrupted.  
_  
<”This is Lieutenant Commander Abigail Brand of Alpha Flight, leader of Task Force Danvers. You are ordered to stand down and surrender immediately.”>  
  
<”Aw man...stole my thunder...”>  
  
<”Keep comms clear, please.”>  
  
_Finally, one other voice chimed in. As they looped around the station a second time.  
  
_<”This is Major Christopher Summers, United States Air Force, Retired. I think you have one of my people on board that thing and I’d like to take her home.”>  
  
_The Starjammer took out another three ships and did a victory tilt of its wings as it flew past the largest view-port in the room.  
  
Carol smiled weakly, “Corsair…”  
  
_<”I hope you could see that, B. Haven’t forgotten you, girl. We got your back, Carol. Always.”>  
  
_Kor-Var gestured at the breaches that were left, “Get back out there and fight,” and several of the Kree ran back into their ships. He pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the console, “I will not let this exist under anyone else’s control. I’ll destroy it first.”  
  
Minn-Nerva raised her hand in objection, “You can’t do that, if you destroy the command interface, the entire station is rigged to go, it’ll take out everyone and everything within range.”  
  
He gave her a fierce terrible grin while the weapon in his grasp powered up with a menacing glow at it’s tip, “Sounds like it’s exactly what I want.”  
  
In between exchanging bio-electric fire with several Kree commandos, Jessica spoke into Carol’s collar again, “I don’t know if you guys have the ability to get someone here in time, but we have _another_ situation that needs an immediate solution. NOW.”  
  
_<”On it, Red.”> _said another voice on the communication channel, this time feminine and definitively familiar. _  
  
<”This is Brand, who the hell is that that just spoke on comms?”>_

_<”Someone either very brave or very stupid, and since I’m talking about myself, I’ll have to get back to you on that afterward.”>_  
  
Jessica’s head snapped up towards the view-ports, searching.  
  
“....Jones?”  
  
_<”In the flesh. Sort of. Told you I’d steal a fucking shuttle if it came to it. Granted, this is a bit bigger.”>  
  
<”Holy smokes!”> Star-Lord’s voice could be heard chiming in, <”She’s heading right for it!”>  
  
_“Um...should I be worried, Jessica?”  
  
_<”Maybe. You said you needed something NOW. Well, you’re going to want to hold onto something. Punch it Sarah.”>_  
  
“What do you mea-”  
  
Before Jessica could finish her question, and before the weapon in Kor-Var’s hand was fully primed, the entire world around them exploded in a maelstrom of insanity. All assembled were thrown to the floor as the entirety of the station shook and groaned like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. The sound was all-encompassing and deafening, if not sickening in a way to hear as metal was forced into positions it was not designed to be in.  
  
On top of that, fires raged throughout the room as the standard lighting failed and dull red emergency lights flared to life, casting everything in an eerie crimson glow. Items began to start sliding around as the station reared back on its axis from the impact.  
  
Jessica managed to pick herself up and leaned Carol up against a computer station. Something deep inside her was either hurt or broken, but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind while she checked on Carol.  
  
“Hey there, how you holding up?” she asked lightly, brushing Carol’s hair out of her face.  
  
“I…”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I’m not sure where I am.”  
  
Jessica bit her lip, “Do you recognize me?”  
  
Carol looked up at her and smiled, “Yeah, you’re my annoying but plucky side-kick. I dig the new outfit.” Carol then frowned and furrowed her brow, “But you look terrible.”  
  
“Not ideal, but right now I’ll work with that,” Jessica replied, looking around and noticing that several of the Kree were not getting back up, particularly Kor-Var, who was impaled on a large piece of broken metal. Meanwhile, explosions could be felt going off throughout various other decks of the ship if the rumbling under her feet was any indication. They were matched by the explosions outside, of which she had a fairly decent view now with half of the wall missing, held together by a flickering forcefield.  
  
The Starjammer and Ryder were still spinning around each other in a delicate dance of dog-fighting with a variety of Kree spacecraft. Various energy beams and detonating ordinances erupted around and near their hulls as they took out their adversaries in a systematic fashion, the Alpha Flight fighters interjecting when their assistance was beneficial. All the ships were looking worse for wear, but were definitely keeping the Kree on the back foot, if not slightly beating them back.  
  
Finally, Jessica turned her attention to the front end of a broken ship that was now parked inside the facility, the back half of it presumably still outside. The front hatch’s emergency bolts exploded outward, and the floor beneath the cockpit area blew out, as the two occupants jumped to the floor.  
  
Jessica Jones emerged and began fighting some Kree commandos and sentries that regained their footing, while tossing a look at Drew, “You said you needed an intervention fast, I hope that wasn’t too excessive.”  
  
“Wasn’t too_ excessive?” _Drew yelled back, “You just rammed us!”  
  
“But did it work?”  
  
“...Yes.”  
  
She glanced over at the other dark-haired women that emerged with her, “See, told it was a good idea.”  
  
The other woman fired her 9mm into a wounded sentry trying to get up and then switched the firing mechanism to semi-auto to dispatch another Kree commando coming their way before responding, “I don’t think that the logic squares out exactly, but I’m not really in a position to argue considering I went along with it.”  
  
“Hell yeah you did,” Jones replied, jumping on top of another sentry and prying it’s head off before throwing it to the floor in a shower of sparks. She jumped down and pointed at her new cohort, “Jessica Drew, say hello to Sarah McCabe.”  
  
Jessica squinted as the name rung a bell deep in the recesses of her mind from times ago in San Francisco, “McCabe…”  
  
“My sister and her family sends their regards,” Sarah replied, seamlessly changing her magazine and continuing to provide covering fire. “Imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from her telling me to sacrifice my entire career to bail out an old friend - which, of course, from the stories I heard growing up I was all-too eager to do, don’t worry about that.”  
  
“...Lindsay?” Jessica asked incredulously, followed by “Duck!” as she fired a bolt of bio-electric energy point blank over both of their heads to detonate another mechanical foe.  
  
“Nice save,” Sarah said with a wink as she marched forward, firing away.  
  
Jones smiled, “I told you I was better at finding people than babysitting.”  
  
The remaining Kree commandos surrendered, and the sentries powered down. The room was covered in debris, soot, and encased in bleak semi-darkness still bathed in half-functioning red light. A voice came over the communication line.  
  
_<”This is Brand. Is anyone still alive over there?”>_

Jessica lifted Carol up to her feet and limped alongside her, “I think we’ve secured the room, but Carol’s going in and out in terms of her functioning memory. I need to get my son from a closet space too. We need to evac soon, just focus on cleaning the trash out there so we got a clear shot back to Earth, and we’ll figure it out.”  
  
_<”Roger, will instruct allied forces to keep it up. Good luck. Brand out.”>_

“We need to get to the hangar, there was more than enough ships in there to get us ou-” Jessica started to say until she saw Jones, Sarah, and the remaining surrendered Kree commandos staring in a darkened corner of the room, back near the original creation station.  
  
Jones called over to Jessica as everyone, even the Kree, turned their attention towards the corner of the room. Explosions from the outside illuminated the figure, that now stood by itself separate from the containment unit it was residing in. Minn-Nerva appeared next to Jessica suddenly, her arm still hanging limply, but now with an additional bleeding gash across her forehead. Earned, presumably, after the ramming episode.  
  
Jones pointed out the sinister looking, silhouetted figure, “I’m assuming that’s_ not _Carol.”  
  
Minn-Nerva spoke to them all, “That is Car-Ell, my creation. She’s free, and I’m positive the data transmission was not successful. She possesses a broken mind, and is extremely dangerous.”  
  
“What happened to the data?” Jessica said.  
  
“It reverts back to the previous host,” Minn-Nerva replied.  
  
“Gerry?”  
  
Minn-Nerva nodded, “No matter how you cut this, your son is now the most precious thing on this station, and trust me when I say I concede all rights and designs on him at this point in time, if ever. I am defeated, and I will do whatever I can to assist you in dealing with this.”  
  
Jessica glared at the new Car-Ell doppelganger as it stepped out of the darkness and was illuminated in dark flickering red and licking echoes of nearby dying flames. “I’m going to assume that whatever help you can render at this point is also minimal, at best,” she said dryly.  
  
“Correct.”  
  
“Great.”  
  
Car-Ell stepped forward and her fists glowed. She raised an arm and blasted the remaining Kree warriors into oblivion, pieces of them flying away like specs of ember in the night. The act was indiscriminate and powerful, and everyone started at the spontaneous escalation of violence. She turned her sights towards Minn-Nerva and Jessica. Jones came forward a few steps and stepped between them, saying, “Come on then, let’s do this. Get Gerry and get out of here.”  
  
“No, you can't fight her, she’s too powerful!” Minn-Nerva shouted.  
  
Jones smiled and rubbed her thumb against her nose as she raised her fists, “I could think of better ways to go, but I never backed down from a fight and I won’t fucking start now.”  
  
Car-Ell looked at her, smiled, cracked her neck, and dropped into a similar pose.  
  
“Looks like your monster wants to play, Doc,” Jones observed, and threw the first punch. Car-Ell’s head snapped back, and it spit out a bit of blood, smiled, and reared back to return the favor.  
  
The punch never landed. Instead it was caught in mid-execution by an open palm, both arms quivering with exertion. Carol was there, holding it. No one saw her get up, she was just suddenly there, almost acting on instinct. Despite her numerous wounds, she somehow got up once again, her eyes burned brightly as energy poured forth from the sockets, her hair billowing in an ethereal glowing and weightlessness. She forced the copy’s arm back and punched her soundly, sending he careening back into the darkness. Carol then turned to the others, “I may not remember why I’m here, or who some of you are, but I do know a bad guy when I see one even if she looks like me. I can handle thi-”  
  
A photon blast erupted from the blackness and hit her squarely in the chest, sending her hurling against a metal column and collapsing.  
  
“Carol!” Jessica shouted. She limped over to Carol’s side as quickly as she could. After she propped her head up she took a closer look. Carol’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was mumbling incoherently.  
  
“Stay with me baby, stay with me,”Jessica kept repeating as she caressed Carol’s temples and hair. “Tell me something that makes me know you’re still with me.”  
  
Carol’s eyes gained just a hint of focus and her hands, quivering, grasped for Jessica’s. She took them, and Carol coughed up a large amount of blood but said with a gruesome sanguine grin, “_Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam._”  
  
“That’s right,” Jessica said, somehow laughing and crying at once, kissing Carol’s forehead. “But today is not that day, girl. Not today.”  
  
Jones screamed and charged into the darkness, only to meet a similar fate, her chest sizzling and skin burned from the impact of raw energy. Sarah kept firing her gun to assist, but the bullets melted as they got close to Car-Ell. Jones slowly got back up, “It’s going to take more than...that...to take me out, you bitch.”  
  
Car-El walked up and raised just a single arm with a wicked maniacal smile. There was no humanity behind her eyes. Just an endless chilling nothingness. Jessica spit, “Do your worst.”  
  
Energy erupted from the hands towards Jones, who kept her eyes open the entire time rather than obey her instinct to keep them shut. She wouldn’t surrender to fear in the dark. Not this time. Not ever again.  
  
It was because of this that she saw the blast deflected at the last minute by a strange circular-shaped blur as it ricocheted noisy around her, returning back the way it came. She glanced to her left, and illuminated behind a freshly glowing docking breach was Captain America, shield freshly caught back in hand, glancing Car-El down.  
  
“One Carol Danvers is more than enough for this universe, I think,” Rogers said, “I’m pretty sure I don’t want it to be you.”  
  
He turned to the others, “Avengers, we have a debt we can never repay to start making payments on. Let’s make this count.”  
  
Beside him stood Storm of the X-Men, Thor with one of his makeshift Mjölnir-replacement hammers spinning in his grasp, and a hovering Iron Man, hands already glowing with the tell-tale signs of an energy blast to follow. It tore into Car-Ell and send her spinning backward into an embankment of machinery. They exploded violently and vociferously, but everyone knew that it wouldn’t keep her down.  
  
Jessica took the opportunity to rip the doors off one of the remaining reinforced storage units and got Gerry, still thankfully sleeping from its confines and returning with him to Carol.  
  
“Lighting Bugs go right, I go left, Patriot Act goes with me,” Iron Man said. “You good with that Cap?”  
  
“Take the lead Tony, I’m good to go.”  
  
“Texas-sized 10-4 on that Cap, hit it people!”  
  
Car-Ell emerged from the wreckage, roaring in fury, projecting proton blasts in random directions. Thor and Storm dodged the blasts easily and circled around her. He looked up and pointed down with his hammer, “Princess, let us show this upstart how noble blood commands the true measure of nature’s wrath.”  
  
Lightning was conjured forth into the space and combined itself over and over again into a giant coherent ball that careened into Car-Ell, exploding and sending her body into convulsions. She lashed out, firing a beam of photos in their direction. Captain America took the opportunity to land a solid punch, followed by a shield bash that send her upwards into the air, just in time for Tony to blast her back down. She jumped back to her feet nearly instantly, grabbed his leg, and threw up into the wall next to Jessica.  
  
He got back up and turned to her, popping his face plate temporarily.  
  
“Oh, hi.”  
  
“Hi.”  
  
“F.Y.I. I’m pretty sure your arm’s broken, possibly a clavicle, among many other things.”  
  
“I’ll be okay.”  
  
“How’s Carol doing?”  
  
“Not good. How’d you find us?”  
  
“You think I’d only leave _one_ tracking device on you guys? Please.”  
  
“Figures.”  
  
“Right. Well, back at it.”  
  
“Good luck.”  
  
“Same to you, keep her ticking as long as you can.”  
  
The face-plate snapped shut and he rocketed back into the fray. Jones and Sarah joined in now that the fight was in earnest, landing punches or causing distractions when they could to assist.  
  
Jessica watched the ongoing struggle with Carol’s head once again cradled in her arms. The battle raging outside in space and the battle raging within the room created a kind of asymmetric poetry of sensory input. It was beautiful and terrifying. But it was also then that she realized that her ears were ringing, her vision was slightly blurred, and she might bleeding internally.

_Just a normal day for Spider-Woman, _she thought as she cradled Gerry against her ribs on one side with Carol’s head nestled in her lap.

“Carol?” she said, as Carol’s eyes started to flutter again, “Stay with me okay?”  
  
“Jess…” she whispered, desperately and softly, a panicked expression on her face, “Help me…”  
  
“What’s wrong baby, tell me, just keep talking and stay with me,” Jessica said while cradling her, “Tell me what I can do to help.”  
  
A single tear fell down Carol’s face. She looked pale and truly afraid as her voice began to fail her, “I feel like I’m falling.”  
  
Jessica started to cry herself, rocking Carol’s body back and forth as she raised her higher up against her chest, “I’m here. I’m here.”  
  
“I’m falling, Jess…”  
  
All Jessica could do was console her. She was trapped and powerless, and her world as well as the room lay in tattered destruction, “I’ll catch you, I promise, I’ll always catch you, remember? Just stay with me.”  
  
“Jess…”  
  
“Yeah, talk to me. _Please stay with me. Don’t leave me. Please don’t go.”_  
  
“...I’m sorry.”  
  
Carol stopped breathing a moment later, and suddenly there was one less marvel to behold in the world.  
  
“Carol? CAROL?!”  
  
Jessica screamed so loudly her voice failed, and she clutched Carol’s body to her as the agony of the moment brought forth it’s full measure. She raised Carol's body higher, and hugged her bloody and ravaged form tight, kissing her face and hands with such grief-riddled ferocity that some part of her irrational mind thought it would bring her back. Carol’s arms hung limply backwards during the embrace. Her raw turmoil was framed by the firelight and explosions of energy and force from the fight unfolding just dozens of feet away. She didn’t notice any of it as the walls of what made reality for her collapsed in upon the battered form of the only person she ever truly trusted and loved.  
  
However, what was transpiring did hit a moment of termination all its own. Outside, the Kree craft were beaten back enough that they began a full retreat, while beside them the Car-Ell doppelganger was beaten back further and further until finally, in a fit of combined energy, electricity, and sheer punishment, she succumbed to the combined efforts of the assembled heroes.  
  
But there was no celebration. No plucky lines or other deliberations. Just a quiet interlude of nothingness. The smoldering remains were disposed of into the void of space, and their attention turned to Jessica in the corner, still cradling Carol and Gerry together, a physical and emotional wreck.  
  
Storm walked over and extended her hands, “Give the child to me for now, I will take care of him for you, Jessica.”  
  
Jessica didn’t reply. She kept staring off into an unknown distant horizon, shaking, lips moving but not saying anything, caked in blood, sweat and dirt. The other Avengers stood there, looking down at Carol with somber eyes and defeated expressions of disbelief and grief. Rogers turned away, overcome. Tony put his arm on his shoulder to console him, but all he could mutter was, “I failed her again. I failed her _again_.”  
  
Storm and Thor approached Jessica together.  
  
“Let me take him,” Ororo gently urged once more, and Thor plucked Gerry up and cradled him in his arms before passing him to Storm, both glancing back down at Jessica with sympathy and regret.

“The Professor and the others were occupied with a matter of great significance, but I was able to come and assist,” Storm explained, “But he also wanted me to deliver a message when he heard what was transpiring with you, Carol, and your son. If you...still care to hear it.”  
  
Jessica just kept staring. Storm hoped that some part of her mind was still present and decided to press on with her message.  
  
“He said, ‘Remember the Bridge,’ does that mean anything to you?” Storm asked quizzically.  
  
Jessica stopped shaking slightly and looked up at Storm, “Say that again.”  
  
“He said, ‘Remember the Bridge,’ but that’s it. He seemed unsure of what may be going on, but said that may be enough.”  
  
Jessica got up and nearly doubled over in pain. They all reached for her but she raised her hands, “Help me get Carol on that machine, or what’s left of it,” she said, “Carry Gerry to that small chair over there.”  
  
“I don’t understand.”  
  
“I don’t need you to understand,” she shouted, “I need you to trust me and do what I say.”  
  
They all scrambled then and within moments Carol was standing back where the copycat was created, and Gerry was back in his chair. Miraculously, both items survived the previous onslaught of chaos. The power was out, and the mechanisms that drove both devices were offline, but if she was right, she would need neither. She raised her arms and one of her ribs definitely cracked and snapped. She could feel other things that felt very _wrong_ inside of her.  
  
_Deal with that later, along with everything else._  
  
She focused her bio-electric energy so that her energy would course _through_ her as a conduit between both of them, otherwise it wouldn’t work. This could kill her, but it could also save them both. With that in mind, death was a minor consequence of cost.  
  
“What are you trying to do?” Jones said, a burned hole in her t-shirt hanging loosely underneath her leather jacket. The other gathered around her in a semi-circle.  
  
Jessica smiled grimly, “Something _marvelous_.”  
  
With everything prepared she closed her eyes and channeled every ounce of energy she had left into both limbs, and made sure to also channel it through herself as planned so that the energy would be one unbroken circuit. Another night of firsts, in a way, just like that first night so long ago.  
  
“Here goes nothing,” she said. “Again.”  
  
KA-ZAP.  
  
  
\---  
  
  
First, there was darkness. Then, there was light.  
  
For Jessica, there was darkness, but only momentarily. When she regained consciousness she staggered painfully over to Gerry and pried him from the chair. He finally woke, and smiled like he just experienced the greatest adventure of his life. He clapped and seemed to want to go around on the ride one more time. Jessica laughed then winced in pain. She handed him over to Tony and Steve, while Thor distracted him with some hammer tricks and Storm shooting decorative light across the ceiling. Jones and Sarah reclined against a bulkhead and just watched with bemused expressions.  
  
Jessica sat back down, watching them play with Gerry, and realized for the first time that maybe, after all, this was really where she was meant to be after all. She thought back to the quote Carol spoke to her from that book, about the special girl without a family that decided to make her own, and the double meaning of that passage became eminently clear in the context of the tableau of love, acceptance, and protection arrayed before her. She looked over at Carol and waited.  
  
For Carol, she awoke in a blinding blast of light. She raised her hands to her face to filter it, but the act did little to mitigate the impact. Finally, either her mind or her eyes adjusted to the persistence of it, and she lowered her hand and attempted to get what little bearings or balance she could.  
  
She felt like walking, so she did.  
  
She walked for what seemed like an eternity. The soft white nothingness of her immediate surroundings began to evolve into various swirling colors. It was like moving within the currents of a flowing, breathing, living tapestry. With each step elements began to take shape and form, and she bore witness to various periods and times of her life. She passed through doorways that led into rooms that held within their confines joys, regrets, failures, and triumphs. With each recognition came a poignant emotion, an ownership of the experience where once she felt only a remote detachment and benign recollection.   
  
Carol walked through one doorway and was standing in her mother's kitchen as a child, beholding her parents fighting over something she couldn't understand or comprehend. The raw emotions on display came rushing back and evoked within her an ancient anxiety and fear. Things buried for years until they were reborn when stolen from her mind all those years ago.  
  
She ran from the room, replaying the memory as it unfolded, running upstairs into her room. As her body passed the threshold, her form changed, and suddenly she was an older teenager. She glanced down at her body in confusion, but her attention was diverted as loud punk rock played on an old diamond-tipped LP player in the corner. Posters on the wall spoke of dreams and aspirations. Arrayed around the space were torn jeans and a myriad of escapes for a girl becoming a woman. A woman who felt trapped by situation and circumstance. She walked over to her old writing desk and saw a brochure tucked into a flap of her old school backpack.  
  
"I haven't seen this in years..." she said as she pulled it out, and the title in bright blue and red shouted back at her in proud, bold-faced font: _AIM HIGH: __Air Force. _  
  
She blinked and was instantly thrust in front of an exploding alien machine, Mar-Vel grabbing her and pulling her clear just as an explosion rocked her senses. She screamed, raising her hands, but nothing came. Another flash. Fighting alongside the Avengers against a giant machine monster. Another flash. Battling against a large, burly giant of a man with a wrecking ball twirling in his hands. Shouting. Screaming. Another flash. She's in the parlor in Avengers Mansion, coming up with an excuse as to why she's drinking to Tony, who looked upon her with a concerned expression that tore into her soul. A moment of regret, sorrow, and unrelenting shame.  
  
Another flash. Another. More Faces. Emotions. So many emotions. It was all so much, and Carol felt she could barely take more of it. She cried out, overwhelmed, and there was suddenly quiet.  
  
It was a deep, resilient silence. There was almost a sacredness to it. She got her bearings again. She was sitting alone in her apartment, staring at a white box with a new outfit inside of it, a Hala star once again emblazoned across its chest, this time with far more significance. A decision to be made.  
  
_I'll take the damn name_, she heard her voice reverberate suddenly in the solemn space.  
  
As her hand graced the gold trim on the fabric, there was a final abrupt flash, and she was back in her old bedroom again, this time staring into Jessica's eyes, both of them naked, the sweet kiss of twilight playing across their skin.  
  
"I fucking love you."  
  
"I fucking love _you._"  
  
Carol smiled and kissed her and the scene melted away like the dream it was. It left her to stand alone again in a sea of white light, and she resumed her journey without further interruption from specters of the past.   
  
Shortly after she came to a stopping point. She didn’t know why it was a stopping point, there were no markers or indicators. It just felt right. She glanced to her right, and saw an open passageway towards a clear blue sky and rolling waves. She stepped through it and was again on a promontory overlooking the Atlantic, her family summer home behind her. The waves roared quietly a distance away, and seagulls cried out to each other from the precipice and beyond. Salt lightly touched her tongue from the spray thrust upward from the crashing of water along the shore.  
  
There was one critical difference, however, and it was her mother’s grave. It was gone. In its place stood her mother herself, in a beautiful blue flower print dress and one of her iconic sun hats she wore when she tended to her garden.  
  
“...Ma?” Carol said, somewhat unsure.  
  
Marie Danvers nodded, and smiled, “It’s me, Carol, and no, this isn’t a dream. Well, it’s close, but it really is me.”  
  
Carol ran over to her and embraced her. The hug felt real enough, and she soaked in the sensation for all it was worth.  
  
“How?”  
  
“That girl of yours is as smart as she is strong, and stubborn. She made this happen, and in a way, fixed a lot of wrongs. My wrongs, really, but nothing I regret, especially you.”  
  
Carol gestured around and to her mother, “Jessica did this?”  
  
“Yes, Jessica,” Marie replied. “She found a way of bridging the connection between what was stuck in your child and yourself, reconnecting everything that was lost before and finally putting everything back where it belongs.”  
  
Carol shook her head, “I don’t understand.”  
  
“Tell me, what do you remember?”  
  
Carol thought back and remembered...everything. She gasped. Every event. Every action. Every decision and face and revelation from the beginning until this moment. Some were faded and fuzzy, others clear and crisp. But either way, they were there, and whatever shred of damage done was gone: from Rogue’s ripping away of her mind to the other struggles endured since the beginning.  
  
“I remember everything.”  
  
Marie’s nodded sagely, “What do you _feel_?”  
  
Carol then went back to each memory and suddenly was flooded with emotions: fear, anger, love, hate...all tied to a face, a name, a moment. Finally the realization came and hit her squarely and true: she was _healed_. She was _whole_.  
  
“You understand now,” Marie said. Carol nodded.  
  
“She fixed everything,” Carol said and stumbled to her knees, crying tears of joy. Her mind was her own again, complete and without an asterisk or condition.  
  
“In a manner of speaking, yes. Or, more poetically put, you could say that she _finally_ caught you,” Marie said, bending down and lifting her back up with a twinkle in her eye.  
  
“Where am I now? What is this place?”  
  
“A part of your brain that is, at last, healing, with the help of another friend,” Marie said, glancing backward at the top of the hill near the house. Charles Xavier in outdated clothing sat in his old wheelchair, arm raised in salutation, then faded away. The world around them began to follow as an opaqueness began to fall upon the surroundings. Her mother turned back to her.  
  
“We don’t have much time, Carol, and I just wanted to tell you a few things.”  
  
Carol nodded, “...Okay, Ma.”  
  
She blinked and they were sitting together on the bench overlooking the water, where Carol told Jessica that her mother would have approved and loved her.  
  
“I want you to know that I’ve been there, with you, this whole time, as part of that Kree device you learned about. I want you to know that when we parted, I was free and clear of any regret. You hear me? No regrets. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’d do it all over again the same way, even if my life was destined to end that way. I’d _always_ choose you.”  
  
Carol looked off for a second as the emotion of the statement hit true, then sniffed a bit and looked back at her mother, “I understand, Ma.”  
  
“Finally, and most importantly,” Marie said, as the world truly began to fade away, “I _do_ approve of Jessica, and you’re right. It’s because she loves you as much as I do.”  
  
Carol couldn’t keep the tears way this time. Marie took her hands, “You make a life with that woman and you raise my grandson right. You teach him about me, about where he comes from: both sides. It’s better that way to keep this from surprising him like it did you.”  
  
“I will, Ma,” Carol said, nodding. “I’ll do it, I promise.”  
  
“Good,” Marie replied. "It's almost time to go, and I need you to understand, _really_ understand, one very important thing."  
  
“What?”  
  
Marie leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I’m _proud _of you. I was proud of you before you got powers and you went off to join the military and make a life for yourself. I was proud of you when you were an officer in the air force with eyes on the stars. I was proud of you when you tore around the world and beyond making things _better_. I was proud of you the minute you put that star on your chest and turned it gold, like your heart. You are the best parts of me, and the best parts of your father. No matter who you are, or who you love, or what you do, I will always be proud of _you_.”  
  
Those words were akin to a burden being lifted. It did not matter that Carol may have already known these things. It did not matter if she didn’t truly need the affirmation to continue on, for she didn’t. Not anymore. Nevertheless, some part of her mind, her soul, was unshackled as she hugged her mother for what she knew was the last time: a precious gift typically afforded only to those in their imagination and dreams.  
  
“Thank you, Ma,” she said, her eyes pooling with tears, except this time the waters emerging forth were born from a wellspring of acceptance, love, and joy, rather than anxiety and loss.  
  
“Goodbye, my beautiful baby girl,” Marie said, and kissed her forehead. As the lips graced flesh, it obliterated that small wondrous pocket of light, and she gasped for air for what felt like the first times in the arms of an angel.  
  
“She’s alive! _She’s awake!”_ she could hear someone shout.  
  
Carol looked up and saw Jessica’s face staring down at her. It always always seemed to that beautiful face that greeted her when she emerged from the dark. She giggled slightly, even though it hurt to do so. She reached up to touch Jessica’s face, which seemed fairly real if not equally bruised and beaten as hers probably did, and said, “Sorry I was gone for a bit, I hope you didn’t forget me.”  
  
“Not for one minute,” Jessica said, wiping away tears yet again, except this time several disheveled heroes were adorned with similar conditions around her, glancing down at the resurrection of a Marvel. Gerry was clapping and gesturing at Carol from Storm’s arms.  
  
“CeeCee! CeeCee!”  
  
The other Avengers drew to his cries like moths to a flame, talking to him and praising him. He took in the affection and attention instantly, and put on a performance of masterful toddler sound-and-merry-making that captivated them all.  
  
“Hey,” Carol whispered to Jessica while they were pre-occupied.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Nice catch.”  
  
Jessica leaned down and kissed her. After a moment the kiss was broken and Carol smiled as they both rose unsteadily to their feet.  
  
“We should probably get out of here,” Jessica said. “I’m going to assume being on a crumbling space station that’s nearly destroyed and half on fire is bad.”  
  
Carol raised her hand, “Just one more thing.”  
  
“What now, Columbo?”  
  
Carol got down on one knee, took Jessica’s hand in hers, and said, “I don’t have a ring. Marry me anyway.”  
  
Jessica raised a hand to her mouth, eyes wide, and nodded.  
  
“Yes. Yes. A thousand times. Forever yes. Always yes.”

Carol smiled, raised Jessica’s hand to her lips and kissed it as Jessica said, “Always _you_.”  
  
“One yes does the job usually, but I’ll take it,” Carol joked, but she stood up just a little straighter, despite the pain. “_Now_ we can go.”  
  
They both leaned on each other and began to limp towards the exit.  
  
“I don’t think they even noticed. Should we tell them?” Jessica said and gestured back towards the others who were following but mostly preoccupied in distracting and caring for Gerry, who was definitely into being the center of attention.  
  
“No, not yet. Let’s spring it on them at an awkward moment and make it weird.”  
  
“I love the way your demented mind works.”  
  
Carol winked, “I know.”  
  
As they all moved out, Steve walked over to Sarah and leaned in a slightly discreet way, “I just want you to know Jones explained to me what she did, and what _you_ did, and your job will be waiting for you when get back.”  
  
A bit of tension released from Sarah’s shoulders, “Thank you sir.”  
  
“People who do things like you did get to call me Steve,” he replied.  
  
Sarah smiled, “Alright, Steve.”  
  
He nodded as they continued to walk, “You should probably talk to Jessica when this is all over, I’m sure she’d like to meet you and see you and your relation again.”  
  
“I think that can be arranged. The feeling is mutual.”  
  
He leaned in one last time, “Also, if you like, I think someone like you could be used in a more important position, if you’re inclined. I think you can make a difference.”  
  
Sarah looked at him wide-eyed, “Oh...yes, yes I would like that very much. Thank you...Steve.”  
  
He nodded, “I’ll make a few phone calls.”  
  
McCabe glowed the rest of the way to the hangar.  
  
Everyone piled into the landing craft that brought the small team of heroes here. Minn-Nerva in a fresh pair of restraints, but this time without the air of superiority or confidence. The others still enamored with Gerry. There was aura of release and relief to everything, for many reasons, and they wallowed it in like pigs in mud. Carol as well, jumping into the pilot seat with an instinctive leap, only to wince in pain as she landed into it. She flipped a few switches and the control board flared to life. Jessica slowly sat into the co-pilot seat, nursing her arm and her midsection, but still glowing from the question asked of her moments before.  
  
Carol turned to Jessica, “Are you going to be okay?”  
  
Jessica nodded, “I’ve had worse.”  
  
Carol raised an eyebrow, “Liar.”  
  
“Okay, you got me, but seriously Carol, just get us home, I promise not to die before we land,” she replied, patting her arm. “I’ll even let you personally oversee and aggressively boss around whoever patches me up, okay?”  
  
“Well, when you put it like that…”  
  
The communication line buzzed.  
  
_<”This is Brand. Ryder and Starjammer along with remaining Alpha Flight fighters will run escort, your path is clear, over.”>_

“Roger that Brand, this is Danvers. We’re en route to Earth, thanks for making the skies friendly.”  
  
_<”Confirmed. Good to hear your voice.”>_  
  
“Likewise, share a drink later?”  
  
_<”You’re on, and I think the others are in too.”>_  
  
Carol looked at Jessica, who nodded, “I don’t think we’d have it any other way.”  
  
She flipped a few more switches and winced again, but it was a good kind of pain. She never felt more alive.  
  
“You okay? Want me to pilot it?” Rogers asked. She waved the concern away, “No, I’m fine. Better, even. Just a little sore.”  
  
She activated the shuttle, and kicked it into drive. It took off without a hitch and with a slight touch angled itself back towards home. Someone brought Gerry forward and placed him in Carol’s lap. He settled in amiably and looked forward out towards the stars as the station’s hangar doors opened. She dug around in her pockets and produced a horribly bent but still functional pair of Aviator sunglasses, and put them on his face, sitting at an odd angle.  
  
“You’ll grow into them,” she said and turned to Jessica. “Where to?”  
  
Jessica smiled, turning to the screen with a rueful, mischievous expression, “The future.”  
  
Carol nodded, and the three of them looked out the view-port together.  
  
_Time to make new memories._  
  
“I like the sound of that.”


End file.
